Author's note: Hey here's the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it along with the rest of this story. I don't own anything related to Marvel.
The Avengers pt4:
"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!"
"You should thank me," Loki huffed in reply as he lifted his head to finally speak towards his not-brother. "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here – to your precious Earth?" He braced his torso with difficulty as he shifted to stand, moving to his hands and knees before starting to push himself up.
Thor dropped Mjolnir to the dark sand at his feet before marching forward to grab Loki's upper arm, hauling him to his feet as the god grunted at the pull upwards. Thor then reverently placed his other hand below his brother's jaw and around his nape, drawing him closer and forcing him to meet his eyes, proclaiming softly, "I thought you dead."
"Did you mourn?" he asked impassively, chin held defiantly high.
"We all did. Our father-"
"-your father," Loki interrupted with a raised finger. He shrugged Thor's hold off and began to step around him, cautious of the rocky environment. "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?" as he gingerly walked away he lifted his hand to the curve of his lower back to provide steady support to his upper body.
Some took note of this, looking at Loki with a few worried eyes wondering how much pain and how weak he was.
It looked like he was in serious pain back when they captured him, but none of them noticed it until now while watching this movie.
"We were raised together," Thor insisted. "We played together, we fought together! Do you remember none of that?"
"I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your….greatness," he answered sharply after he had turned to face the baffled, quiet Thunderer.
Thor sighs sadly he had not seen it until now. How he always was seen and Loki wasn't seen and was always put down.
Loki looked away from everyone not wanting to show any weakness in front of his 'enemies.'
"I remember you tossing me into an abyss – I, who was, and should be king!"
"I remember you letting go and falling into the abyss when we watched the last movie….not Thor throwing you." Darcy says confused.
"You must lack intelligence severely if you think that my perception is altered in any way mortal." Loki glared at her and she challenged him by glaring back.
Jane rolled her eyes and said, "Knock it off Darcy, and just let him think what he wants."
"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined sights?" Loki reeled back as his eyes began to tear while he gaped at the response-
Thor looked down in shame from his past words, when some turned to face him in shock, disappointment or just glaring at him.
-Thor striding forward with an authoritative finger leveled at him as he stated, "No. The Earth is under my protection, Loki."
He laughed as his expression reverted to showcase a gleeful, wide smile. "And you're doing a marvelous job with that," the dark god jeered. "The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly threat. I mean to rule them! And why should I not-"
"You think yourself above them?"
"Well, yes," Loki answered with furrowed brows.
"Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother-" Thor replied earnestly, "-a throne would suit you ill."
Loki snarled as he shoved the blonde out of his way with a covered forearm, passing him to make his way back to the edge of the cliff where they had landed as two ravens flew by emitting echoing caws.
Loki narrows his eyes and asks Thor, "Is that Hugin and Munin?"
The other's looked over at them with curious eyes as Thor responds, "Yes I believe that is them….why didn't I notice them at first?"
"Probably to hung up focusing on Rudolf there to be able to notice them." Tony says rolling his eyes.
"Wait, who are Hugin and Munin?" Darcy asks, and a few others nod also wanting to know.
"Though and Memory, Odin, our father's ravens." Thor began and finishes. "They soar over the planet of Midgard to bring news to him of very important events."
Everyone looked interested to this little detail while Loki scowled at the thought.
"I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson," he derided as he spun to address the god trailing behind him, "in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it-"
"Who showed you this power?" Thor interrogated abruptly.
At Loki's stunned hesitation he continued, "Who controls the would-be king?"
"I am King!"
"Not here!" he yelled, fisting the leather drawn over biceps in his hands as he shook the God of Chaos. "You give up the Tesseract – you give up this poisonous dream!" Thor's passion deflated as swiftly as it had raised, his bright eyes boring into Loki's as he lifted a hand to grasp the side of his neck again, breathing heavily as he requested, "You come home."
His gaze darted over the sincere expression on the other's face for a few seconds before his mouth stretched in a grin that was not reflected in his eyes as he shook his head and confessed his belief, "I don't have it."
Thor recoiled in anger at the firm rebuttal of his appeal, crossing his arm in front of his body and drawing Mjolnir to his hand to raise it threatening. Loki halted the other god's movements as he responded, "You need the Cube to bring me home – but I've sent it off, I know not where."
"You listen well, brother-" he began menacingly with hammer-arm outstretched, before a blur of metal and light slammed into his side and pitched him from the area.
"I'm listening ," Loki retorted, tone taunting though his face remained deadpan.
A bunch of people smirked at the comment while Tony laughs saying, "I've got such great timing." This comment causes Pepper to shake her head sighing.
Iron Man's thrusters flared through the night sky as he slowed passing treetops by as Thor was carried to the ground with the continued force, landing heavily in a sputter of dust as he grunted, Tony skid to a landing on his feet, helmet retracting from his face as he watched the god stumble to his own. "Do not touch me again," Thor panted seriously, Mjolnir gripped tightly in hand.
"Then don't take my stuff," Tony replied.
Loki and a few others raised an eyebrow at the comment.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with," he said.
"Uh," Tony swiveled around to take in the trees on either side of him as his suit whirred, answering rhetorically, "Shakespeare in the park?" While gesturing to Thor's attire, he asked in an exaggerated formality, "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes."
A few people started to crack up and Clint said between breaths he was taking, "Now I'm seeing Thor in a dress."
Loki's eyes lit up and smirked devilishly at Thor who looked at him in dread knowing what he was thinking.
"Don't even think about telling them Loki." Thor says glaring at him.
Everyone looked towards the two of them in confusion as Loki says, "Why shouldn't I tell them the story of you wearing a dress?"
"What? You actually did wear a dress at some point? Tell us the story." Darcy exclaims and a few others eyes lit up.
"Alright I'll tell this story, there's much to tell." Loki smirks as Thor shouts out, "There is not!"
Nobody paid attention to Thor they were more interested in the story Loki was about to tell.
"I sense that this will be potential blackmail material." Tony sang out and Pepper gave him a look.
Loki smirks and begins telling the story, "There was one morning when Thor had woken up and found out that Mjolnir was stolen, he was naturally angered and went to find me thinking that I did it. When he brought it up to me, I had not known of such event and finally after I convinced him of that fact I went to the goddess Freyja to borrow her feathered cloak. I used it to fly off and figure out what had happened, the cloak concealing me from sight."
Thor had finally given up trying to stop Loki from telling the story and had crossed his arms over his chest pouting.
"I came across a giant named Thrym, and he had admitted to taken Mjolnir and buried it. He said that the only way that we would get the hammer back is that he would be married to Freyja. We held a council meeting when I got back to decide what to do. After much discussion Heimdall came up with the idea of Thor retrieving Mjolnir himself…." He pauses for a moment grinning as everyone in the room even all the agents leaned forward in anticipation to hear what he was going to say.
"By clothing himself in a bride's dress and disguising himself as Freyja." At that moment everyone even Fury and Hill broke out into laughter.
Thor turned very flustered and called out saying, "You were my bridesmaid,"
Loki waited a few minutes before continuing, "Thrym was fooled, mostly because of the heavy veil over Thor's face in which a very ugly 'maiden couldn't be mistaken as Freyja the goddess of beauty. Then the wedding was underway and had a feast. Eventually we had to remind the giant about Mjolnir needing to be returned. After he gave the hammer to us, Thor demolished the place and we went back to Asgard."
Loki finished and everyone nodded happy that they know that story now. Jane and Darcy were grinning at the flustered Thor still laughing about him having to wear a dress.
They then turned back to the screen once they calmed their laughter down.
"This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice.
"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then," the faceplate slid down, "stay out of the way." Thor cast his eyes to the ground in consideration as he panted before muttering 'Tourists' and hurled Mjolnir at Tony who was walking away with a yell.
Tony turned, but the hammer slammed into his chest piece before he could raise his arms and forced him backwards and through a tree. The impacted trunk shattered and the tall tree fell sideways, Tony lying on his back where he had been thrown with the debris of bark lying scattered around him. He shuffled as the HUD inside his helmet flickered, uttering, "Okay," deceptively calm of the impending battle.
High above, Loki lowered himself to sit on the rock face. Thor met his gaze as he summoned his weapon back to his awaiting hand, the other smirking.
"How could you guys clearly not see that he wanted to get captured, I mean seriously he's just sitting there while it's his chance to escape." Darcy rants.
Fury nods his head clearly agreeing with her on that subject.
Tony maneuvered onto his hands and knees at the blonde began to twirl Mjolnir by her strap, but before he could fly to Loki's side again Tony fired a repulse blast from his position. Thor was knocked into a tree that held strong at his back before Iron Man flew forward and landed before him as he was gaining his bearings, landing a kick to his chest with the momentum and sending the god through the trunk. Thor lifted his head slowly after he had slid to a stop down on one knee, calling Mjolnir back to his hand from where she had been flung and punching his dominant arm into the sky. Lightning crackled and gathered in the clouds above to streak down to the hammer's head, the power collecting within her before Thor thrust his arm forward and she released the electricity at Tony.
The sizzling beam landed on the suit to additional rays that sparked out upon impact, Tony bracing himself against the onslaught as he grunted. The attack finished as he gasped alongside the reinforced glass covering his arc reactor. Inside the helmet Tony winced at the surge his suit experienced, HUD brightly flickering over his eyes. "Power at four hundred present capacity" Jarvis intoned as the power reading for the arc soared to finally rest at 475%.
"How about that?" he mused, planting his feet firmly and firing repulsor blasts from both of his palms as well as his chest.
Sparks erupted in the wake of the rays as Thor was thrown backwards with a shout, once again flipping to land on one knee so to halt his movement. Iron Man crouched in anticipation, Thor flying forward with Mjolnir outstretched for Tony to meet him in the air with a blast of his thrusters, catching the god in the torso and forcing them through the branches that blocked the skies above. He punched the blonde in the side and then the head as they sailed through the air before arching his flight pattern as they approached a mountainside, dragging him up the stone face with a screech of metal. The Thunderer threw off a part of his hold as he turned to face the mountain, Tony maintaining his grip on one of his arms as the god got his feet under him and ran up the rock, vaulting them off its surface and pulling the suit along as he altered their trajectory back to the forest.
They spun as they flew, grappling as they crashed through treetops before hurling through the base of a tree and tumbling over the ground. The two scrambled to their feet facing one another, Thor swinging a punch across the suits 'jaw' before Tony reeled back and aimed one in retaliation that was caught about the wrist. He tried to throw the grip off for only a second before striking out with his other hand, that fist caught as well. Their muscles strained as they tried to gain some sort of leverage over one another, before Thor bared his teeth and squeezed the metal in his grip. The material over Tony's forearm crumpled at the pressure as sensors beeped in response to the damage the suit was sustaining, displaying the schematics to Tony who was grunting at the pain before he managed to swivel his hand and fire a repulsor blast to the side of Thor's face. At the withdrawal, Tony surged forward and slammed his helmet into the other's forehead. Thor released him as he stumbled back a step and stared at him for his audacity before coiling his muscles and returning the attack, Tony thrown backwards at the force before flipping and landing on one knee. He immediately blasted forward, grabbing the god as he landed beside him and swinging him around to toss a fair distance behind him. Thor was stopped by a fallen tree as his back crashed into it, landing hard on his front before climbing to his feet and charging Tony.
"How long are you two going to fight?" Darcy complained then she looked at Steve, "Are you going to show up soon?"
Steve nods his head saying, "It should be any moment ma'am."
Darcy giggled when Steve called her ma'am.
Tony threw a punch that was ducked under before Thor landed one to the waist of his suit, causing him to turn to the side with a grunt as the God of Thunder took the opportunity to land a blow across his shoulders and nape before his fingers dug under the metal plating of the top of his back. He swung him around and over his head before finally throwing him to the dirt at his feet, Tony landing heavily with a groan. As Thor reached back and called Mjolnir to him, raising her above him to slam into the fallen suit, Tony directed power to his thrusters and blasted along the ground, knocking Thor's legs from under him to send him crashing down.
As Thor was moving to stand, Tony soared back and landed a punch to the back of his head as he fell to one knee beside him, the two bouncing to their feet to attack one another once again. A yelled 'Hey!' interrupted them, a bright shield thrown to clip Thor's temple and the side of Tony's helmeted head before rebounding back into the hands of her owner. Their attention was pulled to Steve's stand on top of one of the ruined and slanted trees as he fashioned his shield onto his left forearm without taking his eyes off of them as he said harshly, "That's enough."
He leapt to the rocky ground where the two were facing off and began towards Thor, "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here-"
"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes," the god asserted.
"Then prove it," Steve dared. "Put that hammer down."
"Uh yeah – no, bad call. He loves his ham-" Thor viciously slung Mjolnir into Tony's chest to send him flipping helmet over thrusters through the trees to land against a stone with a groan.
"You want me to put the hammer down?!" he boomed, leaping through the air between them and swinging Mjolnir over his head. Steve braced himself and crouched low, holding his shield above his head and body as the hammer slammed into the vibranium.
A blinding light signaled the impact as the sound of the shields reverberations echoed through the space, an immense shockwave blasting the trees in its path backwards as it expanded to cover the area, Thor thrown away with Mjolnir in hand. The three men stumbled to their feet slowly, panting and gazing around at the debris as Steve asked, "Are we done here?"
Thor's silence was evidence of his acquiesce, eyes realizing the destruction they had wrought.
"Well that was a great first meeting, a bunch of Alphas fighting for the place as top dog." Darcy says.
Bruce nods, "That is sort of what happens when a bunch Alphas meet, they fight."
The Helicarrier soared through the night sky that was littered with puffs of grey clouds, an entourage of a couple jets maintaining a perimeter around the ship. Loki strode through the lower halls with a guard of sixteen armed soldiers, his postured confident. The group passed the laboratory Bruce was stationed in simulating the gamma signature of the Tesseract, the dark god meeting his eyes as the doctor removed his glasses and smirking at him as he walked. Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose before blinking purposefully.
Loki observed the fortified cage he had been placed in with curiosity as the door slid shut behind him, Director Fury stepping around to the control panel at the front of the room. "In case it's unclear," he started as he typed a sequence into a couple of areas on the panel, "if you try to escape – you so much as scratch that glass-" The layered floor beneath the suspended cell slid outwards from the center, the hole allowing rushing air into the room from its passage to the sky surrounding the colossal aircraft. Loki stepped to the wall of the glass enclosure to peer down before directing his gaze onto enclosure to peer down before directing his gaze onto Fury as he continued, "-it's thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"
He closed the flooring before gesturing to the fallen god, pronouncing, "Ant," and then indicating the controls and stating, "Boot."
A few people nod their heads liking that terminology.
Loki chuckled lightly, stepping casually back to speak from the center of the floor space with arms held wide. "It's an impressive cage – not built, I think, for me," he finished with both of his hands pointing to himself.
Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury responded.
"Oh, I've heard," he commented, turning to stare into one of the cameras secured to the ceiling above. "A mindless beast."
The Avengers were stationed around a wide round table with an interactive interface that displayed the security footage of the room the two were speaking in; Natasha sitting with her arms crossed and laid on the surface of the table, lifted her eyes to meet Bruce's gaze. His arms were crossed over his chest and he stood with his weight resting on one leg and wire frames resting low on his nose as Loki's voice sounded through the room, declaring mockingly, "Makes play he's still a man." Thor worried his fingers as he stood listening to his brother's taunts, back turned on the table the others were viewing at.
"How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated, walking closer to the glass that separated him from the god. "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. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Ooh, it burns you to have come so close," Loki uttered, the Director's jaw shifting in response. "To have the Tesseract, to have power – unlimited power. And for what?" he smiled and directed a knowing expression up at the camera, stating in derision, "A warm light for all mankind to share."
Agent Hill clenched her jaw at the statement and stare from her position on the bridge where she was watching the proceedings.
Fury's mouth pulled up at one corner before he turned away to exit, commenting, "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."
Loki arranged himself to calmly gaze up at the watching cameras before the video feed was shut off.
"Well that was an interesting speech." Darcy says and Jane sighs getting a little annoyed with Darcy's random comments a little bit.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce remarked with a small smile.
"Loki's going to drag this out," Steve concluded from his seat. "So Thor, what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri," he began, turning to step towards the table the others were gathered at. "They are not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people." Agent Hill walked up a row of stairs to join them on the upper level of the bridge, coming to stand behind the god's cape-less form. "They will win him the Earth – in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
A few people looked a little leery about this topic, now that they know that they know the true person behind the invasion.
"An army," Steve echoed, trading an incredulous glance with Natasha as he finished, "from outer space."
"So he's building another portal," Bruce deduced as he removed his glasses, gesticulating vaguely with the frames as he added, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
"Selvig?" Thor questioned.
"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce clarified.
"He's a friend," the blonde corrected, shifting his weight as a concerned expression adorned his features.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha explained, adding, "along with one of ours."
"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve prompted. "He's not leading an army from here."
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce inserted, gesturing to the surface of the table that had the dark god's image with skeptically furrowed brows. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats – you can smell crazy on him."
Bruce cleared his throat in embarrassment of his statement. Loki looked at him with a weird look on his face.
Jane, Darcy and Pepper were also giggling about that statement finding it hilarious.
"Have care how you speak," Thor warned, advancing closer to the table in intimidation of the scientist. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."
"He killed 80 people in two days," Natasha proclaimed, unimpressed.
"He's adopted," he justified.
Thor flinched remembering his comment and Jane says scolding, "Thor, it's not a good idea to talk quiet behind other people's backs.
Thor looks over at Loki about to apologize when Loki says, "It's interesting what others say when someone is not in the room.
Thor stays quite so he could Loki time before apologizing not wanting to get on his bad side.
"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce mused. "Iridium – what do they need the iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony answered as he was led into the area by Coulson, finishing the conversation with the agent with an insistent 'I'm just saying, take a weekend – I'll fly you to Portland.' Phil nodded with a smile, but pointed towards the group assembled and ushered the billionaire in. "Keep love alive," Tony advised as they separated, finally turning his attention to the current conversation.
He sauntered around the table with his hands in his pockets, clarifying his initial comment, "Means, the portal won't collapse on itself like it did a SHIELD." He paused as he circled around Thor, saying, 'No hard feelings, Point Break – you've got a mean swing,' as he patted the defined muscles of Thor's upper arm as he passed. "Also," he continued, "means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."
Hill rolled her eyes and turned away at his elucidation, Tony continuing on to pause at the end of the raised platform with control panels on either side. "Uh, raise the mizzenmast," he commanded of the bridge. "Jib the topsails."
A people started to laugh in amusement, Pepper gave Tony an amused look at how he made fun of the crew of the ship.
The agents seated at the monitors below halted their work and turned to direct cautioning looks towards him at his orders. "That man is playing Galaga!" he abruptly accused, spinning and pointing at one of the agents, Steve and several others following the motion. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."
Tony returned his attention to the Director's monitors, a puzzled frown pulling at his mouth as he fleetingly raised a hand to cover his eye in a mimicry of Fury's eye patch before gesturing to the panels on the left and asking, "How does Fury even see these?"
"He turns," Hill answered, arms crossed.
"Sounds exhausting," He responded.
Fury glared over at Tony who smirked back at him. Pepper was trying not to laugh at his comment, but was smiling a little bit.
He turned back to the suspended screens on the right and began to casually move through the schematics of the ship already depicted, rotating through the use of each interface as he spoke, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he needs is a power source, of high-energy density." He nonchalantly attached a small round device to the underside of one of the monitors before turning to face his fellows' inquiring expressions, beginning, "Something to…" before drawing their attention with a snap of his fingers and a clap as he finished, "kick-start the Cube."
"This video makes it seem so obvious what you were doing." Steve sighs.
"He was hacking into SHIELD's database."
"Tony." Pepper scolded glaring at him
"Can we get back to this infernal film now." Loki says glaring at all of them causing them all to be quiet.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill interrogated of the genius.
"Last night," he replied. When she tilted her head and narrowed her eyes in disbelief, he added, "The packet – Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers." After an evident realization, he questioned in wonder with arms spread wide as if to hope for a contradiction to his thoughts, "Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve interrupted.
Bruce bared his teeth in contemplation as he shook his head, pacing back towards Steve as he outlined, "He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."
"Unless," Tony drawled, walking towards the scientist as he proposed, "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally – someone who speaks English," Tony commented with a survey of the others as he drew closer to Bruce.
"Was that what just happened?" Steve remarked in question.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said as they shook hands firmly, Bruce nodding in agreement. "Your work, on anti-electron collisions, is unparalleled." He released his before finishing, "And I'm a huge fan of the way lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
Pepper shot Tony a glare for that comment.
He cast his eyes away and pursed his mouth before answering 'Thanks."
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," Director Fury argued, suggesting, "I was hoping you might join him."
"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve advocated. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that," Fury countered, "but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"I GET IT!" Darcy yells and starts laughing while Loki just looks really confused.
"Monkeys?" Thor repeated. "I do not understand-"
"I do!" Steve inserted with a point to oppose the god's confusion. Bruce raised his eyebrows as he an expression that was partly of ridicule as Tony ruled his eyes in blatant derision, Steve explaining proudly, "I-I understood that reference."
"I still don't understand it." Thor says.
Pepper begins to explain, "That was a Reference to this movie called the Wizard of Oz. In the movie there's an evil witch that has a bunch of flying monkeys as servants, but they weren't forced magically."
"Are all magical beings made villainized?"
"No, there's a good witch in the movie to." Pepper reassured.
"You know we should watch the Harry Potter movies." Tony says out of the blue causing a few eye rolls.
Tony turned to Bruce and put forward, "Shall we play, Doctor?"
Bruce nodded before waving him down the adjoining hall, "This way, sir."
One of the agents below cast his eyes over his shoulder as they exited, shifting his chair over to one of the screens he was monitoring and switching the display back to the game that had been hidden, resuming his play.
Bruce held a scanner in hand that he drew over the length of the scepter, its image being relayed to the screen he attempted to maintain view of, as he operated the device, adjusting the drape of the cord connected it to the computer that rested on the surface of the bench he was working on so that it did not hang off the blade of the weapon. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract." The clear display depicted the scan beneath an expanded view of the gem set at its head as well as the Cube, two gamma signatures recorded above that mirrored each other. "But it's going to take weeks to process."
"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster," Tony began from across the space, the corner holding three computers that were analyzing the data provided as well as the touchscreen that he was working with. It had a large base that was connected with three thick cords to SHIELD's mainframe, its background sporting the 'Stark Industries' logo as Tony entered the desired specifications and ran the computation, informing, "we can clock this at around 600 teraflops."
Bruce chuckled as the technology he had brought with him, remarking, "All I packed was a toothbrush."
Tony laughed as he crossed the area, offering, "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime." He unconcernedly lifted a slim prod from one of the tables he passed to fiddle with as he coaxed, "Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it – it's candy land."
"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke…Harlem," Bruce declined with a glance down as Tony circled around to his side before the two focused on the display of readings.
"Well, I promise a stress-free environment," he continued, moving behind Bruce to his other side. "No tension, no surprises." He suddenly jabbed him in the side, the zap of the electro discharge sounding briefly as Bruce yelled, 'Ow!' Tony narrowed his eyes and leaned closer as Bruce met his gaze while holding his side.
Thor looked at the screen in confusion at this scene while Loki looked up in shock that Tony would try to provoke the beast into coming out.
Fury, Coulson, Hill, Clint, Natasha, Pepper, Jane, Darcy, Erik and all the other agents had widened eyes in shock.
"Tony! Why would you do that?!" Pepper yelled out.
"Don't worry Pep he was fine." Tony waved his hand.
"Hey!" Steve called as he entered, the billionaire wondering, 'Nothing?' at the lack of any shade of green in the other's irises. "Are you nuts?" Steve says.
"Jury's out," he quipped towards the Captain to Bruce's laughter as the other turned back to the computer.
The tension in the room dispersed once the ones that weren't in the lab at the time realized that nothing happened involving the Hulk.
Tony turned back to him and questioned in admiration, "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"
Clint started to laugh a little bit at the suggestions but stopped when Fury gave him a glare.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked angrily.
"Funny things are," he replied with a gesture of the prod.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. "He cast a glance towards Bruce before adding "No offence, Doc."
"A-Ah, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle," he looked at the eccentric billionaire at his side, "pointy things."
Tony smirked and breathed out a chuckle as he stepped away, stating, "You're tip-toeing, big man – you need to strut."
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve inserted.
"You think I'm not?" he questioned. He turned to pose to him, bag of blueberries in hand, "Why did Fury call us in? Why now – why not before? What isn't he telling us?" At both gazes fixed on him he finished logically, "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
Steve's brow furrowed as he voiced the thought, "You think Fury's hiding something?"
"He's a spy. Captain, he's THE spy. His secrets have secrets," he declared as he tossed a couple berries into his mouth. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?" he asked, turning to face the doctor who had resumed working.
"Aah," he dithered, glancing between them with wide eyes before looking down again, "I just want to finish my work here, and-"
"Doctor?" Steve prompted.
He cast his eyes to Tony before sighing, sending a glance towards Steve removing his glasses and starting, "'A-a warm light for all mankind' – Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube-"
"I heard it."
"Well, I think that was meant for you," he said with a point at Tony as he turned his head to face him. Tony turned his head away and offered him the blueberries, Bruce reaching into the bag to grab a few. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Tony sent him a challenging look and Steve paused in his insult, relayed in the presence of the tower's designer, finishing, "-building in New York?"
"It's powered by an arc reactor – it's a self-sustaining energy source," Bruce explained as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt sleeves, clarifying as he rolled them up, "That building will run itself for, what, a year?"
"It's just the prototype," Tony excused, elaborating to the soldier, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now – that's what he's getting at."
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce wondered.
"I should probably look into that," Tony began as he circled around Bruce again, checking his phone, "once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."
Steve gaped, dazed, before objecting, "I'm sorry, did you say-"
"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," he said, returning his cellphone to his back pocket. "In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" He offers the bag to Steve.
"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve derided.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" he presented, drawing his blueberries back to himself. "Historically, not awesome."
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," he announced to the two. "This is a man who means to start a war, and, if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." He met both of their gazes again, asserting, "We have orders – we should follow them."
"Following's not really my style," Tony retorted as he tossed several berries into his mouth.
Steve adopted a longsuffering expression as he remarked, "And you're all about style, aren't you?"
"Of the people in this room, which one is, a) wearing a spangly outfit, and, b) not of use?"
Pepper turns and gives both Tony and Steve really scary looks, while Darcy asks, "Why does it seem like you two have a problem with each other and are about to rip each other's throats out?"
"I have no idea." Steve says really not knowing why.
Ton scoffs saying, "You'll most likely find out in a minute or so."
Steve," Bruce beckoned, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."
He turned his gaze back to Tony and swept his eyes down the length of him before returning them to his face with a dissatisfied expression, ordering, "Just find the Cube," as he turned to march out of the lab.
Tony maintained an impassive stare at the familiar disappointed look, exhaling once the Captain exited.
Steve stepped through the door as a couple of agents speaking indistinctly passed by, turning towards the left before looking down the hall in the opposite direction, setting his jaw and turning resolutely to march through the latter passage.
"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony scoffed, manipulating the data on the screen astride the scepter-
Those who didn't know about Tony's dad being around the time Steve became Captain America gasped and their eyes widened in shock.
Pepper put an arm around Tony's shoulders in a sign of comfort knowing that his dad is a sensitive subject.
Loki was shocked to find out this information since Clint never mentioned this to him when he had him brainwashed, but he didn't show his shock to the others in the room.
"Oh so that's why you have a problem with him." Darcy says, which sort of makes the topic worse.
Steve was shocked, but he shouldn't be surprised that Howard would have bragged about him to his own son, he just didn't understand why Tony didn't like his own father. Howard was a great man, he knew this.
-as Bruce adjusted his glasses as he read the information on the small screen he was carrying as he crossed the room to another large suspended interface. "Wondering if they should've kept him on ice."
"The guy's not wrong about Loki," he remarked as he modified the view of the strands of the radiation signatures. "He does have the jump on us."
"What he's got is an Acme dynamite kit – it's gonna blow up in his face," Tony predicted as he passed where Bruce was working and analyzed the touchscreen he had set up before. "And I'm gonna be there when it does."
"I'll read all about it," Bruce said, sliding a compressed file to the edge of the screen, the data transferring to the one Tony was working at.
"Uh huh – or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us," he responded as he examined the information.
Bruce permitted an incredulous scoff before enlightening, "Ah, you see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed…Like a nerve. It's a nightmare."
Bruce was sent some considerate glances in his direction.
"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," Tony shared, abandoning his monitor and advancing towards the other as he tapped his arc reactor in indication as he explained, "This stops it – this little circle of light.
Pepper felt Tony stiffen while she had an arm around his shoulder, causing her to try to comfort him even more.
She knew that there was some people in the room who he wouldn't have wanted to know this sort of information, preferable Loki.
Erik, Jane, and Darcy stared at the screen in shock and horror since they have never really known that sort of information. They were defiantly going to have some questions for a few people when all of this was over.
Loki found the information interesting but was trying to figure out whether or not he would use it against Tony.
Steve and Thor both knew that the reactor was beneficial to Tony's health but they didn't know that it was the only thing keeping him alive right at this moment.
He halted facing him through the clear screen, Bruce meeting his gaze though worried hands over one another. "It's a part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible…privilege."
"But you can control it," Bruce countered.
"Because I learned how."
"It's different," he objected as he shook his head, resuming his work.
"Hey," Tony interjected, dragging his hand along the bottom of the touchscreen on Bruce's side to minimize all of the data, "I read about your 'accident'. That much gamma exposure…should've killed you."
"So you're saying that the Hulk-" he cut himself off and averted his gaze with a smirk at his adoption of the name before correcting. "-the Other Guy…saved my life?" Tony's silence reinforced the point. "That's nice – it's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"
"I guess we'll find out," he mused.
"You may not enjoy that."
"And you just may."
The grey door read 'SECURE STORAGE: 10-C' in dull yellow lettering, the metal creaking as its structure was disturbed. Steve was shown through the narrow window, expression twisted into a grimace of strain as he managed to force the automatic obstruction into the wall from which it electronically slid after a moment. He paused as he silently stepped over the threshold, glancing back from the direction he came to ensure no agent was in the area to report his breach of security, before walking into the large chamber.
His eyes observed the rows of thick metal containers lining the room before a label caught his attention on the floor above. He slinked to the side of the aisle before leaping to grasp the rail bordering the area above, climbing over the guard to land on the grating that made up the narrow walkways.
A dark truck drove through a well-lit underground tunnel, Selvig and another scientist inside the large closed box with an array of machinery neatly filling all of the available space. Erik was handed a pair of tongs that he used to gingerly clasp the compact cylinder of iridium that rested on a scale, weighing 0.38 kg, and deftly carried it over the opened briefcase that held the Tesseract and to the device he had created so to stabilize the anticipated portal. The element was accepted with a hiss as the mechanism began to glow a soft red, Erik allowing a pleased smile at the sight.
As soon as Loki took the doctor, we moved Jane Foster," Agent Coulson assured, the screen before him displaying a gathered surveillance photo of her. "We've got an excellent observatory in Tromso – she was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe."
"Aw, you hear that Jane? Thor was supper worried about you." Darcy says squealing.
Jane rolls her eyes but doesn't say anything.
"Thank you," Thor replied as he gazed at her image. He glanced at the agent before suggesting, "It's no accident, Loki taking Erik Selvig. I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Erik is a good man."
"He talks about you a lot," Phil remarked as he stood, circling around the broad god. "You changed his life." Thor joined him as he walked further into the bridge. "You changed everything around here."
"Things were better as they were," he believed. "We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we-we come here battling like bilgesnipe."
Loki nodded in agreement casting a look to Thor.
"Like what?" Phil asked, pausing.
"Bilgesnipe," Thor repeated. At the agent's uncomprehending expression he elaborated, "You know, huge, scaly, big antlers," raising his hands to demonstrate the branching antlers of a stag at the end. "You don't have those?"
"Don't think so," he answered.
"They are repulsive," the god detailed. "And they trample everything in their path."
He stepped to the outermost edge of the area, long panes of glass stretching before him as the blonde gazed out into the skies the immense aircraft soared through. "When I first came to Earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price – and now, again."
"In my youth, I courted war," he added regretfully.
"War hasn't started yet," Fury pronounced. Thor glanced up at his stance on the upper level before turning away again as the Director asked, "You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"
"I do not know," he answered, "Loki's mind is far-afield. It's not just power he craves – it's vengeance upon me. There's no pain would prise his need from his."
"A lot of guys that, until the pain starts," Fury argued, descending a few steps.
"What are you asking me to do?"
"I'm asking what are you prepared to do?" he retorted, leaning over the handrail to level his one-eyed gaze at the Thunderer.
"Loki is a prisoner-"
"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?"
The theory caused Thor to shift his stare and furrow his brow.
Everyone seemed interested with what's going to happen in the film now, since it's been pretty good so far.
Loki stalked from one side of his cell to the other, lips pursed in thought, before he paused and suddenly smirked, commenting. "There's not many people who can sneak up on me," as he turned to face Natasha. She stood alone in the room, by the control panel, stance relaxed and purposeful as she faced him prepared for combat in her leather suit.
"But you figured I'd come."
"After," Loki conceded. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."
"I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton," she announced.
"I'd say I've expanded his mind," the Trickster replied innocently.
Natasha tilted her head slightly in absorbance and dismay of his comment, retorting as she strode cautiously closer to his cage, "And once you've won, once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?" she crossed her arms over her chest as she interrogated him through the reinforced glass.
"Oh," Loki crooned mockingly, "is this love, Agent Romanoff?"
"Love is for children – I owe him a dept."
He held his arms out and stepped backwards, inviting, "Tell me," as he spun to settle himself on the bench on the far side of the cage.
Her lips parted in consideration of sharing the sensitive information before she breathed deeply and glanced to the floor for a second, beginning her tale gingerly, "Before I worked for SHIELD, I, uh….well, I made a name for myself." She sat in one of the chairs placed for the regular guards to rest in, facing Loki. "I have a very specific skill set – I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me.
"He made a different call."
Loki nodded, eyes on the hands resting in his lap as he asked, "And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"
"Not let you out-" she responded instantly with a smirk.
"No, but I like this," he countered, leaning forward with a grin full of teeth. "Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"
"Regimes fall every day," she argued with a quirked brow. "I tend not to weep over that – I'm Russian, or I was."
"And what are you now?"
"It's really not that complicated," she inserted, standing and crossing her arms over her chest again as she proclaimed, "I've got red in my leger, I'd like to wipe it out."
"Can you?" he questioned with brow furrowed in fallacious concern. "Can you wipe out that. Much. Red? Drakov's daughter-"
Clint stiffened which everyone noticed. He kept trying to calm himself down reminding himself that he was compromised when he told Loki about Natasha's past. Loki wanted him to tell him everything and he did which makes him regret it.
Natasha shakes her head when he looks at her which tells him that she had forgiven him because it really wasn't his fault.
Natasha's muscles abruptly tensed, her eyes widening slightly as she swallowed, Loki continuing mercilessly, "-Sao Paulo, the hospital fire?"
"Barton told me everything," he said as he stood, sauntering closer. "Your leger is dripping- it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?" she stared off to the side as he came to stand just on the other side of the glass, her eyes gathering moisture. "This is the basest sentimentality – this is a child, a prayer! Pathetic!
"You lie, and kill," Tony and Bruce were surveying the lists of SHIELD's secure files, the genius' AI having broken through the layers of firewalls. An 'ACCESS DENIED' alert flashed on the large screen, and Tony swiped it off the edge, "in the service of liars, and killers." Agent Hill circled the bridge to an agent who had called her over, the screens before the two displaying a wide alert that read 'VIRUS DETECTED: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS'. Director Fury looked down at the alarm and sighed. "You pretend to be separate, to have your own code – something that makes up for the horrors," Steve opened one of the deep containers that had caught his eye in the storage area, a frown pulling at his lips as he glanced back into the general direction of the officials presumably on the bridge. Grey masks and weaponry with the HYDRA insignia embossed on the side lay neatly in straw cushioning, "but they are a part of you. And they will never go away."
Loki slammed his forearm against the surface barring them from one another and Natasha jerked back a step as he promised, "I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you – slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work," she gasped and turned, "and when he screams I'll split his skull!"
Right after those words are said Clint jumps up about to pounce onto Loki and attack him, but Natasha holds him back.
Thor is also standing in front of Loki protectively in case Clint gets past Nat. Pepper, Jane and Darcy look a little leery of the violence that almost took place.
Fury sighs and says that's enough agent Barton, we have an alliance with him right now so don't ruin it. Clint finally stops fighting Natasha and sits back down, Thor also sitting knowing that his brother is out of danger for right now.
"This is my bargain, you mewling quim."
All the girls in the room besides Natasha look a Loki with offended looks on their faces not very happy with that little comment.
"You're a monster," she declared from her position, having fled to put some distance between them, her back turned to him as she breathed haltingly."
He chuckled darkly with a wide smile, murmuring, "Oh no," as he lowered his arms and splayed his hand against the glass, "You brought the monster."
Her head raised and she spun to face him again, eyes clear and expression composed as she concluded, "So Banner." His confidence faltered as he stared at her in silence as she elaborated, "That's your play."
"What?" he muttered.
"Loki means to unleash the Hulk," she immediately reported into her earpiece, striding towards the exit. "Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way – send Thor as well." Loki followed her progress with furrowed brows, moving back to the center of the cell as she turned and acknowledged with a smirk, "Thank you, for your cooperation."
A few people started to crack up because the look on Loki's face when Natasha figured out his plan was priceless.
"She got ya." Tony teased smirking at Loki.
Loki glares at him really wishing that the magic suppressing handcuffs where not on his wrists so he could turn Tony into an animal.
Fury strode into the lab that the two scientists were occupied in as he asked accusingly, "What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"
"Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you," he responded from his seat on a worktable, one leg crossed in front of him whose ankle rested his hands on as the other hung off the edge of the surface.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," he said, having come to stand before the billionaire.
"We are," Bruce retorted, Tony idly tapping his phone against his knee as a smirk pulled at his mouth. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit-" he pointed to one of the monitors behind the Director that he turned to observe, hands on his hips, "-we'll have the location within half a mile." The screen rotated a model of the globe on one side as the analysis of the Tesseract and its gamma signature were shown on the other, an alert in the center notifying them that the search process for the signature's location was at 46%.
"Yeah, then you get your cube back. No muss, no fuss," Tony reassured before his attention was called to the monitor in front of him when it beeped. A file had been highlighted in red, prompting him to ask, "What is 'Phase 2'?"
One of the HYDRA guns was placed down with a clank on another table by Steve as he entered, proclaiming, "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons," to Bruce's slight gaping towards Fury. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me," he remarked in apology towards Tony.
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury justified, hand raised in placation as he approached the soldier, "This does not mean that we-"
"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony interrupted, standing as he swiveled the screen around to display the schematics he had accessed for the development of said weaponry. "What were you lying?"
"I was wrong, Director – the world hasn't changed a bit," Steve commented disapprovingly.
Everyone was watching the screen with interest. Loki being a little interested with it having a feeling that the scene was about to go into chaos.
He senses that sort of thing.
At Thor and Natasha's wary entrance, Bruce turned to the agent and asked her with a point of his folded wire frames, "Did you know about this?"
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she suggested firmly.
"Ah ha, I was in Kolkata – I was pretty well removed."
"Loki is manipulating you," she insisted as she stepped closer.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
Tony started laughing at the comment and gave Bruce the thumbs up. Pepper then smacked him upside the head.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
"Listen, I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," he responded. He walked over to the monitor and pulled it closer by its corner, indicating with his glasses the plans for use of the Cube as he queried, "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Fury answered, "Because of him," with a point, the singled-out God of Thunder furrowing his brow in confusion as he indicated himself for clarification, 'Me?'.
"Hey," Jane says glaring at Fury not very happy that the Norse god that she fell in love with was the reason SHIELD was making weapons.
Tony's expression displayed his confusion as he shifted, and the Director elaborated, "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town." Bruce released the screen and cast his eyes to Thor in amazement. "We learned that not only are we alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but piece with your planet," Thor proclaimed.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" he argued. "And you're not the only threat."
"The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, who can't be controlled."
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve inserted.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor asserted. "It is a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"-a higher form?" Steve asked.
"What do you mean by that Thor?" Jane asks.
"Well the Tesseract is like a beacon of power here on earth and without it the other realms wouldn't bother you. They finding out about you having the Tesseract and are working with it would cause some alarm for that of those that heard of it. It could have them bring war to your doorstep in fear of what other power through combat, the assumption held."
"Everyone looks a little shocked by Thor's explanation but decides not to continue with the subject and just continue with the movie.
"You forced our hand," Fury defended. "We had to come up with something-"
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony surmised with his hands in his pockets, adding deridingly, "Cause that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"
"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck-deep in it-" Steve commented.
Pepper gasped and then glared very fiercely towards Steve who shrunk back a little in his seat. Pepper's glare being very intimidating.
"Wait- Hold on – how is this now about me?"
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" the Captain retorted.
Loki and a few others watch the confrontation between the two very intently.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor remarked chidingly.
"Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury objected as he whirled to face the god.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust-"
"They're not my champions!"
"Are you boys really that naïve? SHIELD monitors potential threats," Natasha enlightened, Tony egging the Captain on in the background with a 'What is it about me that bothers you so much? I'm curious.'
"And Captain America's on a threat watch?" Bruce asked skeptically.
"He's not your concern, Doctor," Fury interjected as Thor began, 'You should have let me take the Tesseract-'
"We all are," Natasha announced.
The slim gem set in the scepter glowed azure as their voices continued on angrily against each other-
"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Tony taunted.
"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack…." Steve snapped.
"Threat – verbal threat! I feel threatened!"
"Show some respect."
"Respect what?"
Thor muttered towards the Director, "If I need to put you down, I will."
-the long weapon held on the surface of one of the worktables. From the other side of the room, the scepter's length ran to seemingly capture the arguing individuals, ethereal blue glow instigating the animosity thick in the air.
"Alright this is showing that the reason we all broke out arguing is all because of your glow stick of destiny." Tony says and then smirks over to Loki when he glares at him.
The others roll their eyes at Tony's jock regarding the name he called the scepter.
A depiction of the weapon was shown on a small screen in the middle of the controls of an aircraft, the signature of the gem resonating and displaying its location to be to one side of the corresponding image of the Helicarrier.
"Transport six-six-Bravo, please relay confirm codes," a female agent requested as the real craft appeared through the cloud cover in front of them, one of the pilots flipping a switch above in response. "I've got you on the computer but not on the day log. What is your haul? Over."
"Arms and ammunition. Over," the other pilot replied.
In the back of the jet, six men were seated working to finish garbing themselves in SHIELD's armed agents' apparel and readying their firearms. Clint opened a case, sling full of specialty across his back, and lifted his signature bow to extend her arms.
Clint started to try to focus on his breathing not sure how he will react to the attack that he apparently leads.
Inside the larger aircraft, Thor directed towards Fury, "You speak of control, yet you court chaos."
"Okay I want to know what it means to court something." Darcy says.
Thor starts to explain, "Every single AEsir hold certain elements of life to themselves. You are expressing joy and pursuing a specific element that tends to be a close relationship with someone that represents that element."
"So it's sort of like a romantic relationship." Jane clarified.
Thor nods and then Darcy says smirking, "So is there a goddess that has to do with war since when you were younger you would 'court' war."
Thor blushes while Jane glares at her saying, "Darcy!"
"What? I was just asking." Darcy defended.
"Well there was Freyja who is the goddess of war and a few other things, but I also admired my father when it came to fighting in the war and being successful at winning."
Everyone seemed interested in this description. Then Tony smirked, "Well I guess that means that since Fury is 'courting chaos' he's interested in Loki, since he's practically the God of Chaos."
Coulson and a few other agent chocked on their laughter not expecting to hear that type of sentence while everyone else in the room started to crack up….well everyone except Loki and Fury.
Fury glares at Tony and then he glares at Loki who has a smirk on his face.
Fury then yells, "Alright that's enough, I would like us to finish this film so we could move on to the next one."
Everyone then shuts up.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce remarked. "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 ordered.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked with an open hand, laying it on Steve's shoulder.
"You know damn well why – back off," the Captain yelled, backhanding the limb away.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," he challenged.
"Yeah," Steve smirked in taunt of the concept, circling the other, "Big man in a suit of armor." He halted on his other side and asked sharply of Tony, who was staring forward with tensed jaw, "Take that off, what are you?"
All of a sudden without warning Pepper gets up from her seat and slaps Steve across the face, shocking everyone.
"If you ever say something like that to him again, I would do more than just slap you!" she yelled close to tears.
Tony grabs her hand and has her sit back down and calms her down while Steve was just sitting there in shock for a few minutes.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," he answered promptly, Natasha jerking her head with an eyebrow raise in concession of the points raised.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Tony's eyes pinched at the corners at the soldier's declarations. "And I've seen the footage – the only thing you really fight for is for yourself."
"That is not true! He fights for me and his friend Rhodey." Pepper yelled.
Steve and a few others flinched at the rage in her voice.
"Uh, who's Rhodey?" Darcy asks.
"Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes of the U.S. Air Force, Tony's best friend since collage." Pepper says still not happy with Steve's comments in the movie.
Steve luckily doesn't have a red hand print on his cheek from her slap.
Fury's eye lowered in unvoiced disagreement. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play – to lay dawn on wire and let the other guy crawl over you-"
"I think I would just cut the wire," he said tersely.
"Always a way out," Steve remarked with a mocking grin, casting his eyes to meet Bruce's for a second, who shifted uneasily. "You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you?" Tony questioned incredulously as he stepped closer. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers – everything special about you came out of a bottle."
Steve looked like he wanted to apologize but Tony waved his hand to keep him from speaking as Pepper put an arm around him as a form of comfort.
In the hull of the jet soaring through the clear skies, Clint pressed the button to open the hatch with firm azure eyes. He steadied his stance in the howling wind of the opening as the plane circled the Helicarrier, left arm reaching over his shoulder to draw an arrow and knock it on his extended bow. He pulled back and aimed towards his target before swinging his weapon to the left slightly to compensate for the high winds he would be shooting into, glancing back at his objective before releasing. The arrow flew wide of the massive craft before the wind caught it and curved its trajectory, the shaft piercing through the air to attach itself to the side of the Helicarrier by four wires that shot out of the sides of its blunt end. The small, round glass coverings near the bottom of the specialty arrow began blinking red.
Clint clenched his jaw and his hands turned into fists.
"Put on the suit," Steve dared of Tony, whose teeth were grit and eyes were wide, "let's go a few rounds."
"You people are so petty," Thor jeered after laughing, "and tiny."
Steve cast his eyes to the others in the area as Tony closed his eyes and pressed the back of his wrist to his forehead to gather himself, Bruce remarking, 'Yeah, this is a team,' as Fury ordered, "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-"
"Where?" the scientist asked in aggravation. "You rented my room."
"The cell was just in case-" he attempted to justify before being interrupted.
"-in case you needed to kill me – but you can't. I know – tired."
Loki, Erik, Jane, Darcy, Pepper and practically all of the other agents in the room that didn't hear this statement before had stiffened their muscles.
The noise and tension in the space was abruptly dissolved at the yelled admission, all gazes fixed on Bruce. He adverted his eyes from the stares and uncomfortably explained, arms crossed over his chest, "I got low, I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out."
"So I moved on, I focused on helping other people – I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show-" his shoulders shifted as he moved backwards a step, Thor balancing his stance and expression showing his internal preparation for combat, "-and put everyone here at risk." Bruce shifted forwards again as he growled, "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"
Fury cast his widened eye to one of the Doctor's hands as he placed his own on the gun strapped to his thigh, slowly moving the fastening forward so to allow him to draw the weapon as Natasha prepared to draw her own firearm at her side.
"Doctor Banner," Steve called, Bruce's wild attention drawn onto him, "put down the scepter."
He stiffened before turning his gaze down to his left hand, searching the long weapon in confusion as to when he had lifted it from its stand on the table behind him. The gem shone steadily.
His mystification was interrupted by a trilling beep emitting from the monitor across the room, the depiction expanding the image of the world to a precise location, an alert flashing to signal 'ENERGY SIGNITURE MATCH: 95%'.
The occupants of the room all turned towards the sound, Natasha swiftly returning her gaze onto Bruce as he returned the scepter to the surface of the worktable. "Got it," the Director announced in response to the alarm.
"Sorry, kids," Bruce started as he walked the length of the lab to analyze the screen. "You don't get to see my party trick after all."
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
'I could get there faster,' Tony inserted as Thor insisted, "The Tesseract belongs on Asgard – no human is a match for it."
"You're not going alone," Steve asserted as Tony turned to exit, grabbing the man's upper arm.
"You gonna stop me?" he retorted, slapping the hold off.
"Put on the suit, let's find out," the Captain countered, stepping closer so the two were facing off chest to chest as Fury warily watched their confrontation.
"Why is it that you two go at it at the most inconvenient times," Phil asks rhetorically.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
Bruce removed his glasses as he surveyed the screen in front of him, the section of the Cube's gamma signature that was recognized highlighted in red in one of the lower corners as the alert percentage increased from 98 to 99, and then 100%. "Oh my god…" he muttered at the location displayed.
Once he opened the aircraft, Clint sunk to one knee as he pressed the second of four buttons on the grip of his bow. A bright blast resonated from where the explosive arrow had affixed itself, the flames ripping through the engine alongside and up through the center of the floor of the room where the Director and Avengers were gathered. They were all thrown away, Natasha and Bruce flung through the glass separating the upper area from the space below.
T.B.C
Author's note: Sorry that this chapter took so long, I got a new computer for my birthday and I'm still learning how to use it. I also need to wait until it's convenient for my 'editor' to read stuff for me and then post it. I will hopefully get the next chapter up soon, but I'm going to a camp for the next few weeks starting on the 23rd. So hopefully I'll still be able to write stuff. Please R&R.