Author: on a roll! And I find it kinda fun to have my beloved agents have a few different modes: civilian, family and agent. Writing mostly off the movie since it's so much more detailed than the adaptation is. Anyways... Enjoy.

Clint stared at the man as he stood and grinned.

He wasn't much taller than Fury and was slender, with long black hair and bright green eyes.

"Not much to look at... maybe not a threat." a little voice in Clint's head whispered.

Years of SHIELD and military training silenced that voice immediately.

"The Tesseract is of potential alien origin. This man came through the energy door created by the Tesseract. He is an unknown... he is a threat." his inner agent growled.

"Sir. Please put down the spear." Fury commanded as the stranger regarded them.

The man looked at the spear before thrusting it towards them which caused it to shoot a blast.. of something.

Clint moved on instinct, grabbing Fury and shoving him out of the way.

He felt the heat from the blast across his back and cringed when they both went rolling across the floor.

"Clint." Fury hissed.

"I'm alright." He growled as gunfire started to echo through the room.

The gunfire ceased and they both looked up in time to see a tech fly back.

"To me!" Clint commanded the last of the standing agents before pulling out his sidearm.

The Heckler was not one of his favored weapons but it worked well enough.

A blue black mist appeared in front the stranger's face, deflecting the bullets to the floor before he shot off another blast from his spear.

Clint dove to one side while another agent went to the other.

Fury narrowed his eye as the agent who had been directly behind Clint took the blast straight to the chest.

Clint cringed at the sickening crack as another agent hit the support beam and fell to the floor motionless.

"Move. Move!" his inner agent commanded even though his body was a little less than willing.

"Get up old man." a second voice, this one sounding a bit like Rain, hissed in his head.

"I'm up... I'm up." Clint groaned, shoving himself to his feet.

Footsteps that he didn't recognize made him move a little bit faster and before he could swing his gun around to fire, the stranger had his arm in an iron grip.

"Shit." he thought.

The stranger watched him for a moment before whispering, "You have heart."

The spear touched his chest, just hard enough for him to feel the tip pass through the Kevlar and touch his heart, before his entire body went cold.

Fury crouched near the Tesseract watching as Clint's eyes glazed over completely black then turned an eerie crystalline blue.

As soon as Clint holstered his sidearm, Fury put the Tesseract into a metal briefcase with every intent to get it to safety.

"Please don't. I still need that." the stranger said, glancing his way.

"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury growled, doing a mental count of his dead or injured agents... too many.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else." the stranger said, drawing himself up a bit straighter. "I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Loki... Asgard... that all sounded vaguely familiar.

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig whispered, pulling another scientist to her feet.

Thor... supposed Prince of Asgard. Loki was, at least according to a file that had passed across his desk, Thor's younger brother.

"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury said, noting that Clint was looking around the room.

Loki smirked at Selvig then told Fury, "An ant had no quarrel with a boot."

"Are you planning to step on us?" Fury scoffed.

His best agent was compromised and more were dead or severely injured... this was not going to end well.

"I come with glad tidings. Of a world made free." Loki smirked.

"Free from what?" Fury demanded.

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that in your..." Loki told him, pausing to touch the tip of his scepter to Selvig's chest. Selvig's eyes glazed over black then turned crystalline blue... exactly like Clint's. "You will know peace."

Fury took a half step back, not willing to let Loki or that scepter near him. "You say peace. But I kinda think you mean the other thing." He growled.

Clint stepped up to Loki, glared at Fury and said, "Sir. Director Fury is stalling. This is place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

Even being brain washed, Clint was still dangerously smart which Fury never thought he'd hate about the man... until now.

Loki turned to Fury, who shrugged and said, "Like the pharaohs of old."

"He's right! The portal is collapsing in on itself! We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Selvig called, working at one of the monitors.

"Well then." Loki said, looking at Clint.

Fury didn't make a sound when the bullet hit him in the chest or when he hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind from him.

Loki gathered Selvig and the other agent he had turned before the agent led them from the lab.

Clint trailed behind, snatching up the briefcase with the Tesseract in it.

Fury lay there staring at the ceiling and realized that Clint was still in there... somewhere.

Clint was a professional assassin... basic instinct would have made him take a head shot to guarantee a kill.

But Fury knew Clint well enough to know two things: he didn't miss and he always took a kill shot unless he had a damn good reason not to.