"Morning Agent Accion, it's a pleasure finally meeting you," Agent Barton, also known as 'Hawkeye', said courteously, shaking her hand warmly. For a guy she usually saw from afar up in the rafters, he sure was handsome. And a gentleman.

Happily, she shook his hand, repaying his warm smirk with a pleasant smile.

"It's a pleasure finally meeting you too Agent Barton," she said, looking at Coulson momentarily, giving him an impressed pout. He smirked and blinked once in response.

Gesturing to the mat of the gym, Barton stepped towards it. "Shall we?" he asked.

Glancing at it, she nodded and followed him and Coulson as they stepped onto the mat. Barton, without the accompaniment of Coulson, sat criss-cross down on the mat—leaving Scotty's mentor standing there with his arms folded behind his back. Not knowing what to do, Scotty looked to Coulson for answers. He nodded, and she sat across from Barton.

Confused, Barton eyed Coulson. With one gentle head twitch, Coulson gave up and awkwardly sat on the mat in his nice suit.

All Scotty could think was how exciting it was. She wiggled where she sat, smiling at her two trainers for the day.

"Now, let's get one thing straight. Your practicing comes later…for now, all you do is listen and remember," Barton said, slowly nodding, looking Scotty straight in the eye.

"Yes sir," she said mechanically.

"Perfect. First things first, is going undercover," Barton began, setting one hand firmly on his knee.

"Do I get to do that?" Scotty asked, her eyes widening. She looked to Coulson, who was still trying to adjust on the floor.

Barton shook his head, "Not usually."

From there, he went on a ramble about one or two experiences he's had undercover. One was something about Budapest with Agent Romanoff, but he didn't go into much detail about it. But one of the important things he told her to remember, was to believe the part she was playing while keeping a level head.

At first, it seemed contradictory. Believing in a part, while not losing your head in the matter—to Scotty it was like asking a vascular surgeon to do surgery without cutting any veins in the process. But after he evaluated, she understood. His example was if she went undercover as the wife of a married couple who were very much in love. She was to believe that they were truly in love, but she wasn't supposed to get in too deep to where she could actually fall in love. It was like listening to a movie script pulled right from a subplot of James Bond.

Coulson's little tidbit in that, was what he referred to as "A Person's Biggest Threat".

"A person's biggest threat is only themselves," he said, finally settling for a sitting position of his knees barely pulled up to his chest.

Scotty quirked a brow. "Themselves?" she laughed. "Usually it's like…the villain, or a weapon."

He just shook his head. "Only you can be the one to really put yourself in a dire situation. If you blow your cover, you're done with," he explained, shrugging nonchalantly. Barton nodded in agreement.

"But what if someone makes you blow your cover? Like the stereotypical, 'Oh my gosh, hi, how have you been' type deal in movies?"

"The only person who can make you blow it is you. As far as you're concerned, you don't know the person that claims they know you," he coolly replied.

The next section was about lying. Lying and telling the truth. Like when it came to polygraphs, you had to stay calm and believe every lie you were telling. You want someone to believe you when you're lying? Keep eye contact, say it with enough confidence to appear casual, and stand still.

"Other spies will look for all those little signs. If you keep eye contact, keep stress levels low, and have confidence, you could lie to anyone," Coulson said thoughtfully.

"What if you're telling the truth, but you want them to think you're lying?" she asked, looking between Barton and Coulson. She had seen that in movies too. The hero desperately tries to escape, warning people about impending doom, but they don't believe them and die. It sounded smarter in her head when she asked it.

Barton shrugged. "Say it as desperately as possible. If they already found out you lied before, they'll think anything you try to tell them is a lie, especially if you're frantically spitting it out."

"If no one believes you though, when you want them to, the best to do is resort back to confidence. As much as you want to beg and plead, it won't get you anywhere. It only gets others killed," Coulson added, making note of it. She knew because while he explained he lifted his pointer finger.

The last section was STEALTH; both of their specialties apparently.

Coulson's bit was always staying quiet. If something bites you while you're hiding, bite your tongue—if you get a limb chopped off, you bite your tongue—if something triggers you to want to scream, in any way, shape or form, bite your tongue, your thumb, anything. It's all self control. A Person's Biggest Threat, he reminded her.

Barton's bit was slyly taking out your target without being detected. The best thing to do is stay out of eye line, like up high or way down low, like a safety spot. When you do take out a target, hide as fast as possible—whether that be taking the target with you or leaving them there. People are bound to show up and get you the moment you jump from your safety spot. If you don't have a human target, but instead an item, just wait it out. No point in uselessly killing people to get what you want. Agent Romanoff would beg to differ in some instances, but that was besides the point.

All the while, Scotty sucked in the information, nodding and rarely blinking. If she watched them while she spoke, and quietly repeated what they said, she would get it down in her head.

Barton was then called off to leave, so they escorted him out to the hall. Once he was gone, Coulson led Scotty towards the bridge.

"Do you think you've got it?"

"I do," she said, testing it out. She was confident she had the lying down, it was easy enough. Her first test was Coulson.

He smirked. "Liar," he muttered.

"What? How did you know?" she gasped.

"When you said it, your eyes twitched. Even the smallest thing can give it away."

She huffed and he pointed at her, "And you gave in too easily. Never let that happen again."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, then when does practice start?"

"Tomorrow morning. I have meetings. Don't get in too much trouble," he advised as he walked onto the bridge, leaving her in the hallway alone.

"Peh…meetings…" she sneered, spinning on her heels to walk back the way she came.

~O~

Coulson stepped out the meeting, walking alongside another male agent. They were bent over a file, Coulson pointing to it, instructing the other agent. When he folded it shut, the two walked along in silence beside one another.

Occasionally, Coulson darted his eyes around the hall, feeling like someone was watching him. Then something grabbed his shoulder.

"So, Agent Coulson…had your eye on anyone lately?" the young male agent asked, trying to strike up conversation, having heard Coulson had recently started a relationship with a beautiful cellist. There was no reply.

Turning to look at his walking mate, he saw nothing but air. He hadn't noticed that there was only one set of footsteps in that hallway.

"Uh—Agent Coulson?" he called, looking back down the hall.

Up in the ceiling, specifically the vents, crouched Coulson and Scotty. They were squished together, faces smooshed. But Scotty didn't care.

Ignoring Coulson's glare, she grinned.

"Was that good?" she asked, her voice muffled by how close they were.

There was no reply, until she heard an exasperated sigh.

"Yes. That was very good," he muffled back, speaking through a smooshed smile.


"Did you know about this?"

Bruce's hurt tone practically harpooned her through the chest. Everything that was happening—it was like watching a beautiful glass window shatter into a million pieces and she was there to get rained on. With his simple words, Tony and Steve's eyes were on her in an instant while Fury just pinched the bridge of his nose.

The door on the opposite side of the room slunk open and Romanoff and Thor walked in, right as Bruce spoke. Steve was slightly glaring in her direction, and Tony was staring at her like he was trying to see right through her. Trying to see into his best friend. Could she be lying?

"I—Bruce—" she tried to choke out, but she could hardly get the chance when her heart was telling her there was no point.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked, catching Bruce's attention. Her question sounded more like a command than an actual question.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," he said, just as snarky.

Natasha stepped toward him. "Loki's manipulating you," she said warily.

Scotty furrowed her brows, "Manipulating him?"

Cold brown eyes were on her again. "Don't play stupid. You've been doing what, exactly?" he insinuated, glaring at her.

The insinuation was more gut-wrenching than his anger about the possibility about her keeping secrets. He was suggesting that she—or SHIELD, she doesn't know—have been manipulating him. Like she manipulated him into being there and working, getting close to her so he would keep working without a bother.

"Wha—you didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she hissed back, sounding insulted.

Tony, watching Scotty carefully, blinked. "She didn't know about the weapons, Bruce," he said simply.

For a moment, Bruce looked at Tony in surprise, but it quickly turned to annoyance. Scotty was going to look in surprise, but instead, she felt it was more of gratitude. Tony believed her.

"Yeah, well, I'm not leaving because suddenly you guys are getting twitchy," Bruce said, shaking his head at Natasha. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Scotty immediately looked to Fury, who pointed to Thor, "Because of him!"

"Me?" Thor scoffed, glaring at the director.

"Him?" Scotty questioned, hooking her thumb at him in confusion. She swore she heard Steve mutter the same thing.

"Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out-gunned," Fury explained.

That whole cockamamie idea went in one ear and out the other for Scotty. She didn't understand how that made sense.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" Thor growled.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled," Fury said, rolling his eye.

"Like how you controlled the Cube," Steve quipped.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor explained like it should've been common sense.

Steve looked to Thor, "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something," Fury muttered tiredly.

Finally Scotty let out a large snort—or a scoff—she couldn't tell. Fury and Thor turned to her.

"Forced our hand? We're SHIELD, we're obviously very good at covering things up," she sneered, feeling the hatred start to boil in her stomach and in her brain. She huffed and crossed her arms and Fury growled, "When there are higher powers out there that can easily destroy us, we need to be prepared!"

"Then don't blame him! Blame his crazy ass brother! We didn't have a whole planet attacking us—we had one God using a metal robot to do his dirty work if I remember correctly," she recalled in the file she had once flipped through.

Tony nodded. "Exactly. So a nuclear deterrent was your answer, cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury mocked angrily.

Whipping her head around, Scotty looked to see Tony's reaction to the little remark, but was caught off guard by Steve busting out with: "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—"

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony barked, placing a hand on his chest in astonishment.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve quipped again, Scotty, for the first time, hearing him use harsh sarcasm.

In front of her, Scotty felt Thor step forward, his step vibrating the floor.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," he growled.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury snapped.

Scotty rolled her eyes. "Oh please—that wasn't his fault. And obviously, with those blue prints, you were preparing to retaliate!" she barked angrily.

"You don't even know what we're talking about! If you don't understand something, don't try and act like you do—" Fury remarked.

"I wouldn't have to if you would've told me about all of this in the first place! I am a part of SHIELD—how dare you not include me!" she snapped, feeling Thor encroaching up behind her as she spun to completely face her director.

"We had our reasons," he scoffed.

That in itself, mixed with the tension in the room made her blood boil even further. He had reasons, did he? Well they had better be damn good ones.

"I agree with the maiden—she is your warrior—when battle is to commence, there is no use in excluding her from the strategy!" Thor said, backing her up. She nodded, not really getting his analogy, but it worked just fine.

A hum began to fill the room under all the yelling and arguing.

"Are you all so naïve? SHIELD monitors potential threats!" Natasha said, finding it obvious. Which it kind of was.

"And Captain America is on the threat watchlist?" Bruce replied.

"We all are," Natasha growled, rolling her eyes.

Scotty spun to face Natasha, then back to Fury, "We have a threat watchlist? Which I'm on? What else don't I know about?! I'm done with this secret keeping!"

"You didn't know any of this?" Bruce asked suspiciously through gritted teeth.

She spun to face him, her cheeks pink with rage. "No, because I never know anything! No one thinks I'm a need-to-know kind of gal! So I'm given the short end of the stick and shoved into a freaking corner!" she shrieked, stomping a foot and even pushing at Fury's arm.

"We thought you were still in contact with Stark—we couldn't allow him to have access to our system," Fury snarled, smacking her hand away.

"Excuse me?!" both she and Tony gasped, Tony putting his conversation with Steve to a halt. Tony advanced towards the director.

"You've been keeping information from her—because of me?" he snarled. "What gives you the right to withhold something like this from an Agent because of—of me?!"

"If you had gotten nosy, then we would've been having this talk SIX. MONTHS AGO."

Scotty pulled at her hair. "I can't believe this! I left Tony for SHIELD so I could not have this happen—and you're no better than he was!" she growled. Looking back on it, she remembered all the times SHIELD had doubted things about Tony—how many jokes they made when she was around—how she hadn't cared at the time because of anger. "And all those doubts you had about him—about my mechanics, about our relationship, about Tony's workmanship—what is wrong with you people?!"

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor butt in.

"It's his MO isn't it," Bruce suddenly said, staring at Fury. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're—we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury said, holding out a hand. Scotty smacked Fury's hand away and backed towards Bruce.

Tony shrugged, playfully setting a hand on Steve's shoulder. "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve snapped, pushing Tony's hand away.

"Oh I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony threatened, his voice low.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony said, pretending to think for second before smirking.

Scotty furrowed her brows as the men continued. "I know guys worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you," Steve listed off, standing tall in front of Tony, towering over him.

The look on Tony's face was unreadable. She couldn't tell if he was hurt or not.

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve growled. She still couldn't tell if Tony was hurt.

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came from a bottle," Tony said, his tone snarkish. That comment actually made her gasp aloud.

"Tony," she winced. The two men turned to her and Tony pressed his lips together indifferently.

"Unlike you, I don't pretend to be a hero," Tony sighed. He understood how much of a war hero Steve was, but when it came to being a superhero, it was all science.

"Pretend? Why pretend to be something you aren't—what kind of hero gets his friend killed, and fixes her up with gears and springs instead of donors? Then you shield her and only hurt her more—huh?" Steve finally jabbed, poking Tony in the chest.

When Tony didn't back down, Steve shook his head. It was truly an evil side of him, and totally out of character. She could see Tony's eyes hazing over and twinkling a bit. Not from tears, but from remembrance. Scotty had tried to ignore the fact that Steve was talking about her and it had finally hit Tony.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds," Steve muttered. The call from him made Tony's eyes flicker for just a second. No one had dared him to fight—ever.

"You people are so petty—and tiny," Thor mocked from beside Scotty.

"Yeah this is a team," Bruce remarked from behind Scotty. She turned to look at him.

The look in his eyes when they met was like he had been punched in the gut. He didn't know whether to believe anything she said. He has to, she thought. He just has to.

She reached out for him, but pulled back when he seemed to retract from her. The thought of him being revolted by her made her want to break down right there. After everything he had told her, trusted her with, what was she to do?

"Bruce…please…I didn't know," she muttered, keeping her voice stern, not letting it break under pressure.

"Don't lie to me," he said, shaking his head.

"I'm not—I would never…"

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his—" Fury began, but Scotty shook her head, looking to Natasha.

"No," she whispered, her vision going hazy.

"Where? You rented my room!" Bruce retorted, stepping forward, referring to Loki's cell. Scotty looked back at him and held up her hands, like it would calm him.

Now she couldn't take it anymore—she wanted the fighting to be over with. Tony was hurt, Steve was probably hurt deep down, she was hurt, Bruce—she didn't want him hurt.

"The cell was just—"

"In case you wanted to kill me. But you can't, I know, I've tried," Bruce finally blurted in his angelically calm ramble.

Everyone stopped what they were doing; every breath halted. Scotty gazed at him, seeing his image blurring.

"What?" she whispered.

Bruce stared at her heartbroken, seeing the tears forming in her eyes. The one thing he hadn't told her. But he couldn't back down from defending himself now.

"I got low," he started, looking everyone in the eye. "I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out."

Scotty bit her lip.

"So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk," Bruce said, gesturing to everyone. Finally his eyes landed back on Scotty.

She watched his hand crawl up the side of the table and reach for the scepter. Her eyes widened and she could feel something wrong with the entire situation, especially after he pulled it from it's place.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Accion? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Behind her, she could hear Fury and Romanoff begin to pull their guns from their holsters. She had to stop this.

"Bruce—" she whispered. Carefully, she reached one hand out for his hand, the other cupping his cheek. "Put down the scepter."

His entire demeanor changed immediately. He looked down at the scepter in his hand in astonishment, Scotty's fingers barely touching it, his knuckles snow white.

Across the room the computer started beeping like mad.

"We got it," Fury sighed.

Without looking at Scotty, Bruce put the scepter back on the table. Looking over her shoulder, Scotty saw Tony with his hand on Steve's chest, having held him back from advancing during the scene.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce muttered as he pulled his cheek away from her hand and walked to the screen.

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked, stepping forward.

"Scotty and I can get there faster," Tony piped up immediately. She looked to him when he mentioned her name, her right hand instinctively rubbing at her left palm now. Tony noticed, his face looking indifferent.

Despite that he gestured to it, "See, she's getting an itchy trigger finger? We can get it!"

"Look, all of us—" Steve began to plan, but Thor cut him off, replying to Tony.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it."

With that, Tony turned to leave. Steve stopped him.

"You're not going alone."

"That's why I'm taking Scotty," Tony snarled.

"I'm not going to allow you to take her with you, just so she can get sucker punched again!"

"You gonna stop me?" Tony threatened.

"Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve threatened right back.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony shook his head, looking like he was dying to do it.

"Put on the suit!"

Scotty grimaced and looked to Bruce, seeing him looking shocked. The screen was blinking repeatedly.

"Oh my God…" he muttered.

And suddenly, everything was aflame.

~ o ~

The metal grate was cold on her face when she opened her eyes. She had blacked out, just for a second. Agonizingly, she lifted her head to look around and found herself in a lower equipment room. Gently, she whipped her hair out of her face and looked back up at the window they had fallen through, seeing as how she was surrounded by glass and cuts had formed on her skin. The room above them was glowing orange. An explosion.

Carefully, she tried to hoist herself up, but was held down by rubble, trapping her leg by the thigh. Inwardly she growled.

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Accion," Fury's voice said over her earpiece, catching her by surprise.

From ahead of her, she heard several muffled footsteps and a dash of red. Natasha started pulling at the rubble atop of Scotty's leg, using all of her might. Her grunts were strained.

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Accion," Fury repeated.

Scotty stuck her finger to the ear piece, "We're okay!"

Her eyes darted beside her, having heard distant heavy panting. She looked to see Bruce, lying there, writhing around on the floor, gripping at the grate.

"Yeah we're okay," Natasha repeated, having gotten one thin piece of rubble off.

"Bruce…" Scotty whispered, thinking about reaching out for him, but she had to use her arms to try and pull herself out. Natasha heard her utter his name, and turned to Bruce in confusion. Her face read utter terror, though.

"We're okay…right?" the Russian agent muttered, her voice shaking.

A bead of sweat swam down both of their foreheads, as Bruce clenched and unclenched his fists swaying back and forth.

"This can't happen—this is what Loki wants," Natasha continued, tugging at the rubble desperately, trying to keep her voice down.

"Bruce—Bruce—you have to fight it," Scotty said just as frantically, trying to pull her leg out as Natasha struggled.

Bruce's panting got worse, his back arching. She didn't want this to happen—he had control. "We're gonna be okay. Listen to me," she muttered, her voice breathy, trying to be soothing. A single tear was starting to form in her eye, bothered by some smoke.

Two workers dressed in mechanics uniforms approached, calling out. "Are you guys hurt?"

Natasha looked at them in surprise, while Scotty just gritted her teeth and waved them away, her hand looking like a propeller it was moving so fast.

"Now—Bruce—we're gonna be okay, alright?" she continued, keeping her eyes on the workers as they scrambled away. "Bruce—I swear, on my life, I will get you out of this—you will walk away and never—"

Bruce let out a low growl and he lifted his head, slightly, his bright green eyes staring at her. "Your LIFE," he repeated, his voice deep and angry.

The sound made Scotty jump where she lay, and she watched in horror as Bruce's back started to grow, ripping at his shirt. His skin was bleeding to green, and all of his limbs were growing.

"Bruce—" she whispered as Natasha screamed in frustration through her teeth, trying to lift one big piece of rubble off of her. Natasha's scream mixed with Bruce's roars as he grew and grew, flinging off of the grate down to the floor, where he smashed into an air tank. Steam shot out everywhere, filling the room with fog.

With a large tug, Scotty pulled her leg out from the rubble and began to stand. Bruce's transformation was complete. He was now the Hulk.

"Nat run!" she screamed as the Hulk turned to look at them, no one recognizable in his eyes.

The two of them scrambled down a tight hallway that ran behind them. Scotty ignored her limp as she pulled Natasha into another hallway, hearing everything crashing behind them as the Hulk chased them.

How could they have let that happen? She remembered them promising a better environment—Tony should've taken him immediately to Stark Tower, like he had mentioned before. Maybe he would have been safer there.

Natasha grabbed Scotty's arm and pulled her up to a higher platform that was more encased in the darkness.

"We need to get out of here," Natasha pointed out, panting, whispering. They crouched on the platform, looking all around. Hulk was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm not just going to leave Bruce like this—"

"He's not Bruce anymore. We'll figure out how to save him later," Natasha cut her off.

They both stood up and carefully walked along the platform, trying to make sure their boots didn't make any noise.

But Scotty knew they couldn't sneak around for long.

With a loud roar, Hulk popped out of nowhere from behind them, making the platform rumble and shake. They gasped and looked back in surprise. The platform, from the weight, collapsed on one side, the floor inclining and crashing to the floor below them. Gasping, the two women lost their balance and rolled down the platform, landing on their feet as the Hulk bounded down the broken platform. Natasha pulled out her gun and immediately shot above Hulks head—gas erupting from a shot pipe.

They ran and started swinging and flipping their way through pipes and other platforms—trying to confuse him. Finally they made it to a small, narrow passage surrounded by glass. They rushed through as Hulk crashed through behind them, roaring. Sparks everywhere were flying and Scotty could feel herself running faster, propelling herself forward, past Natasha.

She wasn't going to let herself die now, not at Hulks hands. He wasn't going to appear the bad guy.

There was a smash and the Hulk disappeared. Scotty stared over her shoulder, her face covered in sweat. Both Hulk and Natasha were gone.

"Nat?!" she panted, her throat feeling like sandpaper.

She rushed back to where Natasha had been and jumped through a hole, finding Natasha sitting against a wall, her face contorted in pain. Her hand was holding her side. The Hulk was advancing towards her.

"Bruce—NO!" Scotty screamed, jumping in front of Hulk as he drew his hand back to strike again. Her arms were held up to stop him, and he looked at her in surprise.

Recognition even.

"You're better than this!" she begged as he started lowering his arm, looking at her in distress.

SMASH.

Hulk was slammed through a wall by a blonde blob—none other than Thor—and all Scotty could do was stand there in shock. She had to get her head back—Thor was coming into play. Natasha grunted behind her and Scotty quietly sighed.

"Someone will be here soon, Natasha, stay still," she muttered. She called for medics and then hurtled through the hole in the wall, leading to an airplane hanger.

Thor was ducking and weaving away from Hulks blows. When Hulk tried to slam his hand down on Thor's head, he knelt down and held onto Hulk's hand, his arms shaking.

"We are not your enemies, Banner! Try—to—think!" Thor snarled through gritted teeth.

Scotty's helmet slithered up her neck and encased around her head as she watched Hulk punch Thor across the room. She couldn't stand by any longer and protect him.

The Hulk stalked towards where Thor was, and Scotty flew herself to Thor's side, way ahead of Hulk.

"Need some help?" she said, her voice sounding robotic through her helmet. He was kneeling there, wiping blood from his nose.

He looked up at her and smirked, "Are you capable of a distraction?"

She shrugged. "Let's find out," she muttered, her voice hard, trying to keep herself from saying no.

Thor lifted his hand, trying to call his hammer, and Scotty flew at Hulk. Dangling from the ceilings were chains, and her first thought was to grab one. Wrapping it around her wrist, she used it to swing by and kick him in the face. He stumbled back and she pulled the chain from the ceiling. Growling, she whipped it around until it wrapped around his neck, in which she instinctively pulled and he collapsed to the ground with a slam. Panting heavily, he grabbed at the chain and pulled her from the air towards him.

The chain, still wrapped around her wrist, tugged her forward towards his impending fist. Right as she pulled at the chain, she heard Mjolnir dash through to Thor. The Hulk turned in Thor's direction, allowing Scotty to just slam right into the floor.

As she got up, Hulk slammed into a plane beside her. Thor landed behind her, holding Mjolnir confidently.

"Thank you for your help," he nodded.

"We're not out of the ball park just yet big guy," she panted, watching as Hulk pulled the wing off of the plane.

He threw the wing, which Scotty's shoulder gun popped out to shoot, while Thor threw Mjolnir. Hulk grabbed it and fell backward, trying to lift he hammer off the ground.

Thor jumped at Hulk and punched him, grabbing the hammer and wrapping his arms around his neck.

"We need to tie him down! Control him!" Scotty called as she floated above them, looking all of the chains hanging around.

"Think of something!" Thor grunted as the Hulk struggled, evenly matched.

Scotty nodded, her head darting around, examining everything. Tie him down, tie him down, tie him down, control him, control him, control him, she thought desperately.

Hooks on the wall far, far away were good enough to tie all of the chains to.

"I got it, I got it! Bring him towards the wall!" she called, pointing to the metal wall.

He nodded and she flew at all of the chains, pulling them from the ceiling and towards the wall. She tied the chains, pulling them into a knot around the hooks, looking out the window at the flaming engine close by. Behind her, Thor was struggling to lead Hulk towards the wall.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something floating out the window. Looking, all she saw was a large black plane, hovering, preparing itself.

"Oh my God—THOR LOOK OUT!" she screamed, jumping away from the window as the plane started shooting. The glass broke and fell to the ground, bullets slamming into Hulks side.

Hulk growled and roared, turning to the plane. Without hesitation he jumped out the window.

"NO!" she gasped.

Thor grabbed her arm, "We are no longer his concern! Loki is our priority now!"

A fuzz came through her ear piece and Tony' voice yelled in her ear.

"Scotts! What's going on on your side—how's Bruce?!" he yelled, sounding like he was struggling.

"Bruce is gone—he's all Hulk now—Thor and I are on our way to get Loki! I'll keep you updated!" she called, running after Thor, using all her might to pull herself away from grabbing Hulk and the plane.

"Scotts!" he called. "Take care of yourself!"

"Always!"

~ o ~

"I go high, you go low," Scotty whispered as they made it to the door. She flew up to the vents as Thor rushed to the door. Crawling through the small vent, she made it up into the dark rafters, watching the large containment cell Loki was standing in. Her helmet shrank back into her suit, as Thor ran in. The cell door was opening, allowing Loki to exit.

Thor jumped at his brother, falling right through him. Loki disappeared and the door to the cell closed. Scotty's eyes widened. That wasn't good.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki laughed, appearing at the door to the cell. Thor growled and flung Mjolnir at the cell wall. The glass cracked and the entire cell shuttered.

Loki grinned devilishly. "The humans think us immortal. Shall we test that?"

He moved to the control panel and prepared to press the button that would open the floor and drop Thor from the helicarrier. Scotty prepared herself for striking when Coulson's voice rang out like a beacon of hope.

"Move away please."

Scotty looked at the large, bulky gun Coulson was holding. She had seen him wield a weapon, but never anything like that. He gestured to it as Loki stepped away from the panel.

"You like this?" Coulson asked. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?"

He lifted the gun, and it started glowing a bright orange. Scotty bit her lip, preparing for Coulson to fire, when Loki appeared behind him, shoving his scepter through Coulson's chest.

Everything seemed to freeze as Scotty watched Coulson's body lift above the ground, his face dropping in surprise. Thor slammed his hand into the glass, screaming in agonizing desperation.

"NOOOOOO!"

Scotty opened her mouth to scream the same, wanting to jump from her place and murder Loki where he stood. Her heart was jumping into her throat, wanting to push itself from her body—make sick all over the floor.

Bite your tongue, your thumb, anything.

Clenching her fists, tears forming in her eyes like her piping had a leak, she lifting her hand and gnawed at her knuckle. She could feel her teeth biting through the metal, causing her skin to pierce and her bones to crack. She couldn't give away her position. She couldn't stop herself from slamming her free hand on the pipes out of desperation to keep her other hand in her mouth.

Loki returned to the panel like nothing happened, Coulson slumping to the floor. He pressed the button and the floor opened. Thor fell away with the cell, and left Scotty alone to watch Coulson die slowly on the floor.

Turning to leave with a smile on his face, Loki played with his bloody scepter. Coulson's half dead eyes looked up into the rafters, right at Scotty. He knew she had been there. She pulled her hand from her mouth, and her lips twisted and turned, quivering like mad. She wanted to sob—to cry out for help. But he lifted a single finger to his lips, a reminder for her to stay quiet.

A single tear dangled from her lower lid, and she nodded. Like a child learning from a parent, she lifted her own trembling finger to her lips to signal that she would do as she was told. She would hold her tongue, she would stay quiet. Her entire body was shaking, the tear waving back and forth, ready to fall. Every breath she let out was choppy and shallow.

"You're going to lose," Coulson moaned out.

"Am I?" Loki laughed, turning to the dying agent.

"It's in your nature."

Numbly, Scotty crawled closer to where Loki was standing. She prepared her stance to jump down and take him, but she needed more stealth than that. Her sadness was turning into rage as she stared at the back of his head. His stupid, inflated ego.

She crawled down the wall, as speedy as possible, staring at him the entire time.

"Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky—" Loki said with a smirk as Scotty slunk up behind him. Her hand was ready to fire one bolt at him. Without a moments notice though, Loki reached around and grabbed her by the braid. He whipped her over his shoulder, and slammed her into the ground, his bloody scepter pushing itself against her jugular.

"Your little agent…failing at the simplest of tasks…where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction," Coulson said unfazed.

Loki squinted at him, "I don't think I—"

The gun fired with a stifling blast and Loki flew back into the wall. Scotty stared up at the ceiling in defeat, her mouth dropped open, tears falling into her ears and her hair.

"So that's what it does," the two agents whispered together.

Loki ran and was free, because the two agents wouldn't get up.

Coulson couldn't, and Scotty just didn't want to.

She wanted time to stop.

Everything was wrong—going wrong.

Hulk was gone, Thor was gone, and Coulson would follow.

She choked out one word.

"Help."

OH MAH GOSH

This chapter is nineteen pages long! What a long chapter!

Geeeeeeez

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