Walking into the lab, Steve couldn't believe the charred remains as Stella tried to pick through them in hopes of being able to recover anything.
"Stella, Tony's figured out where the Tesseract is. We're going after it." Steve informed her as she looked up at him.
"Where is it?" She asked walking to him before they walked out of the lab.
"It's at the Stark Tower." Steve told her as Stella began to put the puzzle pieces together.
"He's using Tony's arc reactor to energize the Tesseract." She whispered as a light bulb went off in her head.
"We better hurry…" She began before Steve grabbed her hand gently.
"Stella, what we're about to do, you don't have to…"
"I'm going to help. You're gonna need my powers too." She told him as he locked his jaw, sighing because he knew she was right but he didn't want her to be in danger.
"I'm guessing you have the Stubborn Stark gene in you?" He asked as she smirked.
"Who do you think Tony learned it from?" She teased as he shook his head, but cracked a small smile.
"Stick close to me then." He began, looking into her eyes, so she knew he meant what he was about to say.
"I promise I'll keep you safe." He whispered, cupping her cheek gently, as she blushed at the sincerity in his eyes.
"I know." She whispered back as he held her gaze, the never ceasing tension between the two of them increasing.
"Cap, getting my suit then I'll meet you at the tower." Tony's voice said over his earpiece, breaking the moment between the two of them.
"Right. On our way." Steve replied, before dropping his hand from Stella's cheek and clearing his throat to get back into control.
"I'm gonna get the rest of my uniform. You grab Agent Romanoff, she's in sick bay. Then we'll meet in the hangar." He told her as she nodded.
"Right." She responded before they turned and headed in different directions.
Running towards sick bay Stella felt her hands pulsating and her adrenaline rushing.
She had never been in battle before, was she being stupid to think she could really handle it?
Opening the door to sick bay, Stella watched as Natasha stood up, obviously shocked to see Stella standing there.
"Doc?" She asked wondering why Stella was in such a hurry.
"It's time to go. Steve is going to meet us at the hangar." She told Natasha whom nodded not one to question Steve.
"Can you fly one of the jets?" Stella asked as the bathroom door opened and a man walked out wiping his hands off.
"I can." He told Stella who looked to Natasha not sure if this guy was okay or not.
Stella was pretty sure she had seen him leading the attack on the Helicarrier.
Noticing Stella's confusion, Natasha nodded her approval to let Stella know that he was okay.
"Great, we better go then. Steve's waiting." Stella informed them as they nodded in agreement.
"Let me get my gear." He told the girls as Natasha turned to look at Stella.
"We better suit you up too. Can't have you avenging Coulson in a skirt." Natasha added as Stella chuckled her agreement.
"C'mon. We'll grab one of mine." Natasha said as they left Clint to suit up while Stella followed Natasha.
"Who was that?" Stella asked nodding back towards where they had left the man.
"That's Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. A trained assassin and amazing archer."
"Archer?" Stella asked skeptically as Natasha smiled.
"You'll see." She said as they went into a room and Natasha opened the door grabbing a black jumpsuit and tossing it at her.
"Here, get dressed quickly. I'll meet you outside." She told Stella before leaving the room so Stella could get changed.
Pulling the black catsuit on, it clung to her body tightly and left little to the imagination, but she was surprised at how comfortable it was, and how easily it moved almost like a second skin.
She didn't feel restricted at all, and actually felt a little protected not having her arms and legs exposed.
She then pulled on the boots Natasha had left for her as well, before whipping her hair into a tight ponytail to keep it out of her face.
"Not bad Doc." Natasha complimented as Stella walked out of the room a few moments later.
"Thanks. We ready?" She asked noticing Natasha had armored up with her guns and a few other goodies.
"Let's do this." Natasha replied as they went back the way they came grabbing Clint along the way before meeting Steve at the hangar.
Stella couldn't help but smile in awe seeing him in his full Captain America uniform, shield and all.
There was something majestic about seeing it in person as opposed to the cards and photographs her dad had showed her.
Of course this one was completely updated and seem to be a lot tighter…not that Stella minded.
Steve turned to face them as they walked in and his mouth dropped when he saw the skin tight number Stella was wearing.
It clung to her perfect curves like a glove to a hand and her jade eyes seemed to pop in all the black.
"Stella you look, umm…wow." He stuttered as she blushed at the obvious attraction in his eyes.
"Ditto." She responded with a wink as Clint and Natasha shared a look of annoyance before they all turned to head down to a jet.
Picking the one with the quickest exit out of the hangar they walked on board just to have the pilot turn and object to seeing them standing there.
"Hey you don't have authorization…" "Son, just don't." Steve interrupted and stopped the kid silent.
"Yes sir." The kid mumbled standing up from his spot as Natasha and Clint shooed him out and took their places in the pilot and co-pilot seat.
Tony had taken off a little bit ahead of the jet and went strait to the tower to see what the situation looked like, plus he knew his suit had been badly damaged from his stint as a ragdoll in the engine rotors so he had to change it.
"Sir, I turned off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustaining" JARVIS spoke to Tony as he approached the Stark Tower.
From his spot in the sky Tony could see Erik Selvig on the roof working with the Tesseract.
"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." Tony commanded as Erik looked up at him with eyes full of wonder and a blue color that was not natural.
"It's too late! She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe." Selvig said with a crazy disillusioned tone in his voice as Tony rolled his eyes.
"Okay." He replied firing at the contraption around the device.
When the blast got too close, the Tesseract defended itself from it, releasing a barrier and sending the energy outward knocking Selvig and Tony back.
"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable." JARVIS informed Tony as Tony nodded.
"Yea I got that." He responded looking down to see Loki waiting on the balcony outside of his Penthouse.
"New Plan." Tony told JARVIS as he moved to land on the Penthouse platform he had specifically designed for the suit.
"Sir, the Mark Seven is not ready for deployment." JARVIS told him as Tony struggled to land, his suit loosing power.
"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock." Tony ordered, landing on the dock as the mechanics worked to deconstruct the suit, while Tony walked into the house.
Man did he love Technology.
Watching Tony's entrance Loki decided to follow him into the Penthouse as well to see what Tony was up to.
Loki eyed Tony as Tony moved to his bar, never really taking his eyes of Loki either.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity, like you sister tried." Loki asked in a mocking tone as Tony forced a scoff to hide the fact that he wanted to hurt the demi-God for upsetting his sister the way he had.
"My sister was always the better diplomat than me. No actually, I'm planning to threaten you."
"You should have left your armor on for that." Loki teased, watching as Tony shrugged and played it cool.
"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. Plus, you've got the uh- blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Tony asked wanting any excuse to get behind the bar and put his plan into motion.
"Stalling me won't change anything."
"No, no, no- threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one." Tony said grabbing a bottle of scotch to continue the illusion.
"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki asked chiding Tony.
"The Avengers."
"It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing." Tony informed taking a sip of his scotch and shrugging it off as if he was just telling Loki the weather, only to have Loki respond with a chuckle.
"Yes, I've met them."
"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God…" Tony began as Loki hissed and turned to look at out the window while Tony used that as a chance to slip his bracelets on.
"A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, my big sister with her new scary brain powers and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan." Loki added as Tony began to walk to the center of the Penthouse where Loki stood now that he had both bracelets on.
"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." Tony informed as Loki simply smirked at him.
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk." Tony corrected as Loki chuckled.
"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off."
"Yeah- you're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. 'Cause if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned sure we'll avenge it." Tony stated strongly to make sure he got his point across.
Loki continued his smirk and walked toward Tony with his scepter pointed out at him.
"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" He asked sardonically, placing the tip of the scepter over Tony's heart to take control of him like he had Selvig and Barton.
Tensing nervously, Tony then smirked when it clinked against the metal of the arc reactor unable to reach his heart.
"This usually works." Loki mumbled confused as he tried again, only to be met with another metal to metal clink.
"Well, performance issues. You know? 1 in 5." Tony teased, only to have Loki grab him by the throat and throw him across room.
"JARVIS, anytime now!" Tony spoke as Loki grabbed him again.
"You will all fall before me." Loki declared.
"JARVIS. Deploy." Tony commanded as Loki sent Tony through the window and plummeting towards the earth.
"DEPLOY!" Tony yelled as he hurtled to the ground.
Finally the suit shot out from the Penthouse and locking onto the bracelets it unfolded around Tony catching him seconds before he smashed into the ground.
Flying back up to the window Tony stopped in front of Loki to make sure he got his attention.
"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil!" Tony declared before firing his repulsor blast at Loki and knocking him back.