Natasha and Banner were already at the Bridge when Kendra pulled Steve in. Both glanced up at them but neither one said a thing and neither did Thor who was standing at the front of the table, looking thoughtful. Steve slipped out of Kendra's hold and made his way to the other side of the table, giving himself a great deal of space between him and everyone else. Kendra frowned at them and popped her hip out, placing her hand on her hip as she did. "Why's everybody so gloomy?" She asked jokingly, grinning at all of them.
"Fury's going now to interview Loki." Natasha answered flatly, pulling up the surveillance feed from Loki's prison room on three separate holograms. She sent one over to Steve and the she sent to a seat not far from Thor. Kendra frowned and walked over to it.
Loki was walking slowly around his cell, staring at every little detail with masked interest. Kendra felt intense white hot hate burn up inside her at the sight of him. He was a monster, the monster in her closet and underneath her bed. He'd taken her brother, the one person she could always count to be there, away from her. Thanks to this man she had no clue whether her brother was ever going to come back. Kendra wanted him dead more than she had ever wanted anything else."When do I get a swing at him?" She asked darkly, her eyes fixated on the supposed god.
Natasha shook her head. "You don't." She answered firmly.
Kendra's eyes snapped up to meet the deadly redhead's. There was an intense fire in her eyes too, an enraged fire that made the three men watching her shrink back a bit. Even Thor and he had seen many enraged women. "What?" Kendra practically spat out. Steve stared at her in surprise, mentally comparing her to the girl who had retrieved him from the medical bay. She was so different now and she looked...deadly. She looked like a killer. "I deserve to take a crack at him. He kidnapped my brother!" Kendra said, close to shouting.
"I'll be handling the interrogation. You're too close to the situation." Natasha said calmly, not wanting to fight with the younger girl.
"So are you!" Kendra said. This time she did shout. Agents all around the room turned to look at them, surprised and curious by the shouting.
Natasha took a deep breath. If Kendra wanted to yell then fine, Natasha wouldn't play nice anymore. "You're not emotionally stable at the moment. You'll be easier to manipulate and you'll lose control of the situation quickly. We can't afford for that to happen. So you are staying as far away from Loki as possible." The deadly redhead stated coldly, her eyes locked on Kendra's. Her expression was sharp, cold, and uncaring. It pissed Kendra off.
"I can't just sit by and do nothing! Clint would be in there right now questioning the guy if our places were switched!" Kendra shouted.
"Well you're not Clint." Natasha said harshly. Kendra literally flinched at that comment and it took her a good minute to hide the pain that entered her eyes. Natasha had done that on purpose. She knew how much Kendra idolized her brother, how much she wanted to be just like him. Natasha had basically just dashed aside any hope that Kendra was anything like her brother to get Kendra to shut up. "You're going to do as you're told. You're going to stay away from Loki, understand?" Natasha asked, calm once more. Kendra stared at the deadly redhead, feeling too hurt to open her mouth and respond. "Understand?" Natasha asked again, her tone demanding an answer.
Kendra nodded numbly, sinking down into her seat. She pulled her legs up into the chair and pulled her knees to her chest before focusing all of her attention on the surveillance feed. No one said anything, almost afraid to in case one of the two women snapped at them. Natasha focused on her own feed while the three man stared at Kendra. Thor was slightly mad at the young girl for obviously wanting to hurt his brother but he could not help feeling empathy for her. She was deadly loyal to her brother just as he was to his. She wanted nothing more than to keep her brother safe as he did. It was something he could relate to, despite the fact that his brother had caused her brother to disappear.
Bruce was worried for the girl more than anything. This was not the lifestyle any child should be subjected to. Killing people, keeping secrets, being trained to have no emotion...it had to be doing a number on the girl's head. And then they wouldn't even let her interrogate the man who had kidnapped her brother. Bruce frowned slightly, thinking that if the girl was willing to kill for this organization she deserved at least a chance to talk to the god.
Steve was, more or less, still surprised by how drastically the girl's personality had changed.
Kendra was so out of it though, drowning in her emotions, that she didn't notice any of their looks. She didn't notice anything really until suddenly the sound of rushing wind filled the air. She instantly snapped back into reality and looked around to see if one of the windows had been busted. It took Fury's voice ringing out above the wind for her to realize that the sound was coming from the screen in front of her. She focused her attention on it and saw Loki peering at the empty space beneath the glass cage. "You get how that works?!" Fury asked. Kendra cursed, she hadn't listened to what Fury had said before then. It couldn't have been too important though judging by Fury's tone. He was threatening right now, not saying much else. He pushed a button, closing the gap beneath Loki's cage and stopping the sound of rushing window. Fury gestured to Loki. "Ant." He gestured to the control panel. "Boot."
Kendra let out a loud snort, unable to stop herself. Unfortunately she didn't get to be amused for long. Loki was laughing and Kendra knew just from her small experience with him that that was a very bad thing. "It's an impressive cage." Loki admitted, grinning in amusement. Kendra felt a growl build up in her throat and she quickly swallowed it down, not wanting to seem animalistic. "Not built, I think, for me." Loki said knowingly.
Subtly, Kendra peeked up at Doctor Banner to judge his reaction. Of course he understood that the cage had been built for him but it didn't seem to bother him OR, at least, it didn't surprise him. Kendra could understand though why he wasn't surprised. He knew how much of a threat he was, he knew how people felt about him and what they thought of him. "Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury said, drawing Kendra's attention back to the feed.
"Oh I've heard." Loki said. He turned and stared up at the camera watching his every move, giving them a full view of his face. Kendra felt her hands clench into lethal fists as she stared down at his image. Her nails dug into her palms painfully but she ignored it, her hatred making the pain dull. "A mindless beast makes play he's still a man." Loki said almost mockingly. Kendra once more looked up at Banner and was not surprised to see him already locked in eye contact with Natasha. He seemed a little more agitated now but not much. Kendra couldn't help but admire his control. "How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki asked, turning back to the Director.
"How desperate am I?" Fury asked, anger leaking into his voice. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun." Kendra felt a cold chill race up and down her spine. Fury sounded...terrifying. Worse than any time he had ever barked an order at her. Kendra didn't think she had ever heard him this furious before. Kendra searched Loki's face for any sign of fear but saw none. For a brief second she admired his bravery but quickly she was consumed by hate again. She hoped they got the chance to drop him out of the sky because nothing would give her more pleasure than seeing his shocked face before he plummeted towards the ground. "You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Kendra frowned, thinking Fury's tactic wasn't the best one. He had just admitted their desperation. Oh well, at least he had tagged a threat onto the end.
Loki grinned and Kendra almost started grinding her teeth together at the sight. "Ooh, it burns you to have come so close." Loki said mockingly, still grinning away. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share." Kendra frowned deeply. Loki was implying something but she didn't know exactly what. She knew the ending was a jab at Tony Stark but what about the rest? It felt like more than just a mean joke. It felt like Loki was trying to tell them Fury was hiding something, something big. That wasn't surprising, after all Fury was the Director of an agency built on secrets, but it still wasn't good. "And then to be reminded what real power is." Loki said.
Kendra snorted, loudly. "Real power, right." She chuckled out almost mockingly, shaking her head. Natasha gave her a look that said to keep her opinions to herself, at least while Thor was around, but Kendra chose to ignore it.
"Well let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something." Fury said as he walked away from Loki's cage. Kendra grinned wickedly at that, glad that someone else was mocking the god.
Natasha and Steve's screens went black but Kendra kept hers up. Loki was looking up at the camera again, looking directly at it as if he knew someone was definitely watching. Kendra couldn't help a smug smile from appearing on her lips. Mister Big and Bad was in a cage now and it pleased her a helluva lot more than it should have.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner said jokingly.
Kendra chuckled. "Oh yeah, definitely." She said, glancing up at him briefly to smile at him. He nodded to her which made her chuckle a little more before looking back down at the image of Loki before her. A shudder ran down her back when she saw he was smiling knowingly now, smiling as if he knew it was her watching him. She shut the feed off immediately. "I hate him." She grumbled furiously, pulling her legs even closer to her chest. It hurt but oh well, she needed something to hold.
Everyone heard Kendra despite her lowered voice but no one said anything, not wanting to upset or anger her. Steve chose to end the silence that followed her statement, uncomfortable with it. "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" The super soldier said, looking at the golden haired god.
Thor didn't even look over when he replied. "He has an army called the Chitauri." He said almost robotically, like he didn't even realize he was saying it. Kendra watched him curiously. Obviously the video of his brother had put him into deep thought. Either that or he was just slow. Kendra kind of doubted that a freaking god was slow though so, yeah, more than likely he was thinking. "They're not of Asgard or any world known." Thor said, turning to face all of them now. Kendra curiosity spiked at those words. Exactly how many life filled worlds were out there? Thor took a few steps forward, bringing himself closer to everyone. "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." He told them.
"An army. From outer space." Steve asked. The army part he sounded familiar, almost okay, with but the idea of them coming from outer space seemed to confuse him. That wasn't surprising really. Even Kendra who had always been a bit of an alien believer thought it was shocking. Sure the movies showed it but come on, who actually expected that to really seriously happen in real life?
"So he's building another portal." Bruce said, drawing the group's attention to himself. "That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."
"Selvig?" Thor asked. Kendra quickly did a mental recap of the New Mexico file and all of her conversations with Selvig. They weren't supposed to discuss the incident of course or Thor but Selvig had accidentally let slip a few things about the god. He'd confirmed what the file said at the very least, he had found Thor along with two others and sheltered him while he was on earth. He also got him out of S.H.I.E.L.D custody. Kendra smiled a little at that though she was still surprised they'd let the huge muscular man go so easily. Clint had told her all about it (she'd been gone on a mission at the time) and he said the guy had taken down so many S.H.I.E.L.D agents that it had made them look absolutely pathetic.
"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce explained, not knowing Thor's connection to Selvig.
"He's a friend." Thor replied a little curtly, obviously concerned.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Natasha said, speaking up for the first time since before they'd watch Loki. "Along with one of ours." For a second her voice and face betrayed her completely. You could see her concern, her fear, her hurt so easily it was almost pathetic. But then Natasha saw the way Kendra's eyes were shining with hard held back tears and she steeled her nerves, reminding herself that she wasn't the only one who cared about Clint.
Kendra took a deep breath, knowing that since she was the only one present who had dealt with people cast under Loki's spell she should explain it. "The spell seems to only effect what side they're on. Their personalities and their knowledge seemed to hold steady. Basically, the spell puts them on Loki's side and takes out any sympathy they have for their old side." Kendra said, not looking at any of them. She didn't want to. Right then all she really wanted to do was go into Loki's cage and punch him in the face.
Steve shifted slightly in his seat. "I want to know why Loki let us take him." He said, pulling the conversation in another direction. "He's not leaving an army from here." Steve said, glancing back at Bruce as if to make sure the doctor was paying attention.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Bruce said, a tad blunt. Kendra frowned at that. She liked Doctor Banner well enough despite only roughly ten minutes of conversation but she didn't like that opinion. She thought the only thing worth focusing on at that moment was Loki. He knew everything about what was happening after all so why shouldn't they be questioning him. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." Kendra smirked, okay she had to agree with that.
"Have care how you speak." Thor said warningly, taking a step forward. Kendra tensed though not noticeably, ready to spring into action to stop the god if he decided to attack anyone. She didn't know how well she'd hold up against a god but that wouldn't stop her from punching Thor in the face if he tried anything. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard and he is my brother." Kendra slackened slightly. He sounded so loyal and it struck something in her, possibly understanding. She sounded the same way when she defended her brother. Thor still loved his brother despite everything. Kendra had a feeling that if she was in Thor's situation she would still love her brother too but she refused to admit it.
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said flatly, looking up at Thor. Kendra winced slightly at the look on the redhead's face. She was giving that cold "I might kill you" look that frightened everyone.
"He's adopted." Thor said, seeming to say the first thing that came to mind.
Kendra burst out laughing. She covered her eyes with her hand and just laughed until her sides and face were hurting. When she finally managed to calm herself down and uncover her eyes she noticed practically everyone giving her a variety of looks. Thor seemed confused, Maria a tad annoyed, Natasha more or less worried, Steve slightly frightened, and Bruce kind of a mix of everything except annoyed. "Oh come on!" Kendra said loudly, slightly upset by their reactions. "That was funny!" She said defensively, gesturing to Thor.
"Inappropriate timing Agent Dagger." Maria said, giving the much younger agent a pointed look.
"Just trying to lighten the mood Auntie Hill." Kendra said jokingly, smiling innocently at the older woman. "After all, life's fantastic." She grinned wildly as she sung out the word. Maria's eye twitched slightly, she hated any mention of the Barbie song no matter how slight.
"Agent Dagger, start conducting yourself with at least a mild form of professionalism or you will be leaving the Bridge." Maria said, using her most authoritative tone. She knew jokes and other such things were Kendra's way of coping with things but she couldn't help being slightly annoyed by it. This was one of the few times seriousness was a necessity and Kendra needed to understand.
Kendra frowned deeply, anger stirring in her. She took a deep breath and silently reminded herself that she was not allowed to blow up on the older agent. "Whatever you say ma'am." She practically had to force the words out but she managed it. Maria nodded, accepting that that was the best she was going to get from the girl.
After a minute or so of uncomfortable silence Bruce cleared his throat, indicating that he was going to pick the conversation back up. "I think it's about the mechanics." He said, restarting the discussion. "Iridium. What did they need the Iridium for?" He asked the whole group.
"It's a stabilizing agent." Everyone instantly turned their head to look at the infamous Tony Stark as he strolled in. The genius paused for a moment to finish his talk with Coulson, on his cellist no less which made Kendra smile, before focusing back on them. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." Kendra flinched slightly at the mention of the incident, the image of her brother with glowing Tesseract eyes looking back at her popping to the front of her mind. She pushed the image aside quickly, along with a few tears, and focused on Tony as he walked towards Thor. "No hard feelings Point Break, you got a mean swing." He said and hit Thor's arm twice, walking by as he did. "Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Tony said as he approached Fury's half circle of monitors. He stopped in front of them and faced the S.H.I.E.L.D crew in front of him. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails." Kendra smiled at the joke as the S.H.I.E.L.D crew looked up at Tony like was insane. "That man is playing Galaga!" Tony said practically out of the blue, pointing towards one of the agents. Kendra just managed to catch a glimpse of the video game before the agent minimized it and she snorted. "Thought we wouldn't notice but we did." Tony said, looking at the monitors before him. He placed a hand over his eye and looked a little confused. "How does Fury even see these?" He asked, turning around to look at the people behind him. Kendra had a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter but it wasn't working too well.
"He turns." Maria said, obviously not amused at all by Tony.
Tony turned and faced the monitors again. "That sounds exhausting." He said, walking up to two of the monitors. He started messing with things on Fury's monitors which Kendra was pretty sure he was not allowed to do. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily." Tony said, going back to the main conversation. Kendra flinched noticeably at the mention of her brother and buried her face in her knees for a brief second, willing herself to keep it together. "Only major component he needs is a power source. Something to," Kendra looked up in time to see Tony hit his hands together in a kind of rhythm, "kick start the cube." Tony finished up.
Maria's annoyance with Tony was not apparent except to Kendra and Natasha who had spent enough time with the woman to recognize her every emotion by just a few things. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked the genius.
"Last night." Tony said, deadpanned. Kendra's eyes widened slightly and she felt her fangirl admiration for the man kick in again and she shrunk down a bit in her seat, embarrassed by her childishness. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory paper." Tony said, looking around the room for any recognition at his words. Kendra knew what he was referring to but she didn't say so, she could never understand all the freaking science even if her life depended on it. "Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked, holding his hands out grandly.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked, cutting off Tony's mostly uninterrupted all over the place speech.
"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce said, answering for the other genius.
Tony opened his arms again and nodded, like he was telling them all "see, this is how you're supposed to function. Genius life is awesome." He didn't actually say that though of course. Instead he said something else that Kendra found hard to understand and boring. "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." He said, slowly walking over to Banner.
"Well if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce responded easily.
"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony said, gesturing to Doctor Banner.
Steve turned to look at the rest of them, confusion written across his face. "Is that what just happened?" He asked, uncertain.
Kendra gave the super soldier a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry Captain, I didn't understand it either. Geniuses have their own secret language us regular folk can never understand." She told him, joking but only a little. Seriously, geniuses had their own freaking language.
Tony smirked a little at Kendra's comment and Bruce smiled slightly before their focus went back to each other. Tony offered his hand and Bruce took it immediately. They shook hands and Kendra could just see the mutual respect on their faces. "It's good to meet you Doctor Banner." Tony said sincerely. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."
Bruce seemed unsure on what to say but finally he said a simple "Thanks."
"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury said, entering the room in a storm of black leather. Kendra still didn't know how he could wear that all the time. She'd worn a leather jacket during the summer once and had nearly gotten a heatstroke. "I was hoping you might join him." Fury told Stark.
"I'd start with that stick of his." Steve said, adding in his two cents. Kendra smirked, Steve's description of the scepter was a lot better than Fury's. She still had to discuss with him how the thing was not a spear. "It maybe magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." The super soldier said.
"I don't know about that but it is powered by the cube." Fury said. That seemed to interest Thor because he turned to stare fully at the Director. Either that or Thor just finally recognized Fury as an authoritative figure even though Fury was always giving off a Head Honcho vibe. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Kendra winced slightly at the mention of the mind control but she also smiled slightly, Fury had just complimented her brother.
"Monkeys?" Thor said uncertainly. "I don't understand."
"I do!" Steve said almost excitedly, pointing at Director Fury. "I-I understood that reference." The super soldier said. He sounded a little awkward now but he looked proud of himself, like he'd just won the lottery.
Kendra wiggled her toes in her shoes. "I am getting you a cookie the second I get a chance." She told the soldier, grinning at him. He was such a puppy it was getting ridiculous.
"Shall we play doctor?" Tony asked his new colleague, basically giving up on the group discussion in favor of a much more interesting one.
Bruce gestured towards the exit as if to tell Tony to lead the way. "Let's play sir." He said and the two geniuses walked out, both of them looking eager to go do science.
The conversation didn't pick back up after the two geniuses left and it made Kendra frown. She needed a distraction from her thoughts and no one was providing it anymore. She got up quickly, her mind buzzing as it started to pull up the thoughts she desperately wanted to ignore. "Director Fury do you need anything?" She asked, purposely talking just a bit too fast to show Fury she really needed to either have an assignment or get the heck out of there.
"Not at the moment. Check on Stark and Banner within a few hours though, I want an update on their progress." Fury told her.
"Okay. I'll be...around." Kendra said vaguely. She saluted quickly before practically running from the room, catching Phil giving her a concerned look just before she passed through the doors.