Chloe was waiting in Fury's office ever since she was cleared from the infirmary downstairs. She was one of the few agents who took that type of liberty. Agent Chloe Winters wasn't a regular agent. She was nothing like Seren. There were other problems plaguing Chloe but those were set aside for the moment. When the door opened, she glanced back to see Fury walking in.
"So, how'd that meeting go with the Council?" she asked, presuming already what they'd said to Fury and his brand new idea.
"Aren't you supposed to be on your way to Japan right now?" Fury went around his desk.
"You are insane if you think I'm leaving the country right now. I don't need to remind you what happened, do I? What did the council say?"
"What you expected. They're against expanding the Initiative."
Chloe snorted. "That was a sure thing. Seren always said that the Council wasn't truly in her favor. They distrust her just like they distrust her grandmother, Atria."
"The idea of the Avengers' Initiative was to protect our planet when things like these happen but since our only agent has been taken, we need to expand it."
"That's not entirely true," Chloe said, wagging a finger. She sent Fury a sour smile. "Did you ever tell Seren about the undercover stint Romanoff did last year with Tony Stark?" She leaned forwards on the desk. "You were expanding already, without telling her."
"Agent Soul would have been fine with a partner had it worked out."
"Mm, and I assume that the reason you were offering Captain Rogers the same position was to try and expand again?" Chloe's smile vanished from her face. "I know what S.H.I.E.L.D. really does behind the curtains. I know because I have to live my life behind one of those curtains, so it's not a surprise to me, but Seren wholeheartedly believes in this organization and you were willing to take her down the moment things got tough."
"Watch your words, Agent Winters," Fury sat down in his chair, tone sharp.
Chloe had been harboring these thoughts ever since they returned from New Mexico. He wasn't going to shut her down until she said everything. "You've been training Seren since she was a child—you saw her grow up, dammit!"
"It's because I know her completely that I knew she would survive. Maybe afterwards, she would've been back to normal," Fury was irritatingly calm. "You don't know the extent of Seren's strength, I do. I was there for each exam and assessment."
Chloe shook her head. "She told you the Tesseract wasn't something to mess with and now this Loki has her and many other of our agents God knows where. What are you going to do about it?"
"Exactly what I said from the beginning. We're getting a response team."
"Good, I'm one of them."
"No you're not," Fury began to say, "Your main mission is to stay away, just like always. You know the dangers, Winters. I can't risk another agent—"
"I need to help find Seren!" snapped Chloe. "You can't just ship me off to Japan like nothing happened! I won't leave until we bring her back."
"Winters, it's dangerous for you. This is our arrangement for a reason!"
"But these people—we know for sure they're not...you know…" Chloe gave a bob of her head. She didn't want to say the word out loud, not when they could be listening in. "Statistically speaking, these people you're bringing in wouldn't hurt me at all. They're the only people we can trust."
Fury leveled her look. He didn't have the time to start an argument with her and much less start a full force to push her into a quinjet. "Fine," he relented. "Coulson is collecting Stark, Romanoff is bringing Dr. Banner—" Chloe's eyes widened at the mention of that name, "—and I will speak to Rogers."
Chloe nodded slowly, mind thinking quickly. "Okay, I'll join Coulson."
"What? No—"
"You turned Stark away last year, do you really think he'll agree now? No, I need to go with Coulson to make sure he comes. I know Natasha will get Banner here—although it scares me you went to him of all people—and I'm not worried about Steve." She moved around the chair towards the door. "Once he knows what happened to Seren, he'll be the first onboard," she muttered on her way out.
~ 0 ~
It was late at night and Steve was still at his usual gym spot. He should probably try to get some sleep but that wasn't something that came to him as easily as it used to. Had Seren been around, she would've already marched him out of there.
He punched the sandbag harder.
He tried ignoring the feeling in his stomach when he thought of Seren. She was supposed to call a few days ago. He didn't want to admit that he'd gotten excited about the prospect of talking to her again—texts were still annoying and small for him. She'd promised him that she would call instead of the usual check-in texts but it never happened. He figured perhaps something came up, which wouldn't be strange on missions, so he waited for the usual check-in texts. That never came either.
It wasn't like Seren to not at least send a quick check-in text. He tried his hand at sending her a few, even leaving an embarrassing voicemail (he really needed to work on those) but she never responded. No sign of life, to say. She wasn't reaching out to him at all. Something felt wrong.
One, two, three more punches it the bag.
Was Seren alright? Did she get into some trouble? Why wasn't even Chloe answering him?
The fifth punch was the lucky punch that broke the sandbag from its hook. It was anger seeping through his fists now. That and fear. He had lost too much to go through it again, especially with someone as sweet as Seren.
"Trouble sleeping?" He heard someone call just as he'd placed a new sandbag on the hook. It was Fury?
"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill."
"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."
He was clearly here to stay and Steve didn't understand why until he saw Fury holding a manila folder in his hands. He stepped away from the sandbag and started unraveling the tape of his hands.
"I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."
"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently."
Steve paused and glanced at the man. His relationship to Fury wasn't anymore than amicable professionalism but right now he felt like he had a claim to ask about two things, especially when he felt like he was going to be asked something too. "Have you spoken to Seren lately? She was supposed to check in." He would leave it at that and not mention the phone call for fear of getting her into trouble.
"You haven't had any contact with her lately?" Fury asked instead.
Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "No, that's...that's why I'm asking. Is something going on?" His gaze fell on the folder Fury was seemingly holding tightly onto. "Is that a mission?"
"Yes."
"Trying to get me back in the world?"
"Trying to save it," Fury said. He seemed to be calculating something and Steve wasn't sure why?
Why come to him if he was going to be scrutinized before the question was even formally asked? There went the feeling in his stomach again. "Where's Seren?" Fury didn't initially answer. Instead, he offered Steve the folder. Hoping it would lead to his answer, Steve took it. A skim is all Steve needed to do to understand the problem. The Tesseract had found its way back into his life. "Hydra's secret weapon…" He was sure that this was gone. "Why...how do you have it?"
"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."
It took very little time for Steve to connect some dots. Seren knew his history with the Tesseract very well. Her guilt? It all had to do with the Tesseract and him.
'I just don't want to lie to you.'
He felt the air leaving his lungs little by little. She wasn't here, she wasn't with Fury trying to fill him in on a mission gone wrong and when that happens, that means…
"Sir, where is Seren?" His tone left no room for any more diversions or small talk. He wanted the answer now.
Fury raised his head to finally answer, "Agent Soul was tasked to guard the Tesseract. She was compromised. She fought the man who took the Tesseract from us and somehow he gained control of her mind. She attacked us…"
Steve was glaring threateningly before he even realized. He stepped towards Fury. "And what did you YOU do? Did you…?"
"What we had to: fought back. She's still alive, Captain, if that's what you're wondering."
It was. Steve felt his stomach churning before Fury had told him Seren was alive. "Where is she?"
"We don't know but we presume she's with the Tesseract. The man who caused all of this—his name is Loki and he's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."
"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." And frankly, he didn't care about any of it right now.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury said as Steve started for his things. "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"
"You should have left it in the ocean," Steve spat when he turned away. If it had remained where it was lost, none of this would be happening. Seren would be fine and maybe even back in New York.
~ 0 ~
Coulson watched as Chloe swiftly de-activated security protocols like it was child's play, and to her it might as well be. "You do know that I could do it from a press of a button, right?"
Chloe stepped back from the entrance doors with a small smirk. Her eyes were a bright glowing blue, matching the streaks of blue going down her skin. "I know, it's just more fun this way. Proves we're serious."
The two agents made their way into Stark Tower like it was their own home. It was a pleasing moment when their elevator brought them right up despite the owner making it clear they were the last people he wanted to see.
"If he starts shooting, I'm going to shoot back," Chloe warned when they stepped out of the elevator.
However, instead of hearing Tony Stark's sure-to-be rude greeting, the pale woman next to him came with the softest of smiles. "Coulson! Come in!"
It was ironic that both Chloe and Tony were equally confused with that relationship. Chloe flipped her head in Coulson's direction, her long blonde curls bouncing with the action, and mouthed 'Coulson' at the same time that Tony had.
"Uh, his first name is Agent," Tony said, not that Pepper would acknowledge it.
"Come on in, we're celebrating," she motioned her champagne glass in hand then looked at Chloe. "Hi, I don't think we've met. Pepper Potts."
Chloe eyed the hand Pepper held out. How did this woman know them? "Uh...Agent Chloe Winters—how is this possible?" She still shook hands with Pepper but was looking specifically at Coulson.
He ignored her and went up to Tony with the same manila folder that Fury had. "We need you to look this over. Soon as possible."
Tony eyed the folder in Coulson's hand with distaste. "I don't like being handed things."
"That's alright," Pepper came by, taking the folder from Coulson, "Cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." She handed Coulson her champagne glass. Chloe remained behind, at a distance, and watched as Pepper did little with the file and passed it onto Tony then grabbed her champagne glass from Coulson. "Thank you."
"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," Tony held the file back to Coulson.
"Oh would you just open the damn thing?" Chloe asked impatiently. She wasn't here to play nice as Coulson had said. Tony Stark had to help them, dammit.
"Is this about The Avengers?" Pepper asked before her words hit her. She quickly added, innocently as possible, "Which I...I know nothing about."
"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify," Tony said, still sounding as sour as he had been the first time around.
"I didn't know that either," Pepper chimed in.
"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."
"That I did know!"
"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson said.
"Whatever. Miss Potts, got a minute?" Tony led Pepper towards the desk away from the agents. He placed the files into his own databases because if he was even going to skim them, it would be on his terms.
"Not like we don't know you're going to talk about us," Chloe called from her spot, flashing a smirk at the deadpanning Tony.
"I like her," Pepper pointed at the young woman. "She'll keep you on your toes. So, what is all this anyways?" She wasn't going to bother acting like she was in the dark if it was that clear it wasn't the case.
"This is, uh…" Tony doddled as he brought up different profiles in holograph form in the air for all of them to see. Pepper was truly amazed at the various profiles before them. "...this."
Pepper quickly recognized a few profiles amongst the group, that of Captain America from the 40s and who could forget about the Hulk? There were others like a strange blonde man in an armor that she didn't know about, and a man with black hair and green and golden that was surely new. "Oh, I found you," she gave a quick point at Chloe.
"Be sure to delete that," Chloe spoke in an edgy tone after catching sight of her profile in the air.
Now it was Tony's turn to smirk. "What's the matter? Don't like the attention?"
"No, actually. I like keeping my face out of the media."
"Not quite. If I do remember, there's a, uh, popular little cheerleading video of you out there? You were so young! So full of life and the competition life suited you."
Chloe's face hardened fast. "I hate the internet," she spat.
"And yet you're made of it." Tony made a show of expanding her profile for them to see. She absolutely hated that he had nearly everything on her, and it wasn't even from his searches. It was all from S.H.I.E.L.D. of course. "Alien technology merged into that brain of yours, giving you some unique abilities and access to an alien hive mind. I dub thee...Megamind!" His hands flailed over his head in show.
"Oh my God...I'm going to kill Iron Man," Chloe resolved and looked at Pepper. "I'm so sorry for your loss."
Pepper smiled out of amusement. "He'll be on his best behavior."
Tony shot her a look that most definitely disagreed with that.
Chloe felt Coulson's hand on her arm. She was being too much, for everybody's sake she had to bring it down. "Okay look," she started again, motioning she would be changing her attitude, "My friend has been taken, mind-controlled. She's not somebody you want on the bad guy's side. And the real bad guy? He's going to hurt a lot of people if we don't do something. So please, just read the file and come tomorrow."
~ 0 ~
Chloe anxiously waited for Steve to arrive at the landbase, having known about his decision very early in the morning. She made herself available as quickly as possible. She knew she could trust him to help get Seren back.
"Steve, hey!" Chloe met the man outside the quinjet. She couldn't help herself and ran up to him for a hug. "Thank you so much for coming!"
Steve hugged her back tightly. The only other person having it worse than him was Chloe, he just knew it. "Of course. Seren needs us."
Chloe pulled away and nodded. "I was there and I...I had to shoot at her. I threw her out of the sky." Tears filled her eyes rather quickly, all out of sheer guilt. She couldn't even put her words together the right way. "I was so sorry..."
"Seren wouldn't blame you for doing what you had to," Steve said, knowing it fully well. Seren was the type to give herself entirely to the mission. "We're going to find her."
Chloe nodded again. She pulled him towards the quinjet where Coulson was waiting for them. He offered Steve a tablet so he could see things for himself and get a better idea about what really occurred in New Mexico, as well as information on their other two supposed members. Since they would be working with Bruce Banner, Steve would need pictures.
"We're about forty minutes out from base, sir," the pilot informed them. Coulson gave the acknowledging nod and looked at the other sitting across him.
Chloe would help Steve navigate through the pictures, helping to explain Dr. Banner's history and Stark's.
"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve watched the terribly huge green man attacking the army in the video.
"A lot of people were," Coulson corrected, something that unknowingly added to Steve's shoulders as if it was his HIS fault people got into trouble because they wanted to be like him. "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."
Steve watched as the Hulk roared and tore a jeep apart in one clean move. "Didn't really go his way, did it?" It was far from what Dr. Erskine had imagined.
"Not so much."
"Okay but I think we're forgetting about the tremendous intelligence that man has," Chloe spoke up after she ended the video. She didn't want Steve to get the wrong idea about Banner because of a mistake. She of all people knew what mistakes like those caused. Yes, the Hulk was dangerous but Bruce Banner was far from that. "He's aware of what he did and even though we've heard nothing from him, he feels terrible about what happened. You shouldn't let the Hulk influence your thoughts about him."
Steve smiled at her. "Of course not."
"Good," Chloe beamed and handed the tablet back to Coulson. "Plus, he really is like a Stephen Hawking."
"Oh yeah," Coulson nodded in agreement but Steve didn't understand the comparison. "He's like a smart person. I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially," he admitted sheepishly. "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." Chloe chuckled when Coulson realized how bad that sounded. "I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board."
Steve gave an appreciative nod at Coulson. "Well, I hope I'm the man for the job."
"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."
Steve blinked. The idea of his old uniform hadn't even crossed his mind. "The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned."
Steve knew that it was meant to encourage him to take on the suit again but the truth was that he didn't know if he was ready for it. The last time he wore the suit was right before he went under. For some reason, it made him nervous to wear it again. It would be different, he would be somewhere far different than the last time...and he would have new people to work with. There would be no Bucky, no Peggy, nobody he knew.
"You'll be good," Chloe said to him, smiling encouragingly. "Seren needs our help, remember?"
Steve nodded. Anything to find Seren again.
~ 0 ~
The Quinjet had finally landed in their destination which turned out to be a massive battleship of some sort. Steve heard the name 'Helicarrier' twice but its name did not compare to the sight of it. Coulson led him and Chloe down the ramp to where a redheaded woman was waiting for them.
"Romanoff," Chloe greeted her.
"Surprised you're not off somewhere," Natasha raised her head. That's what Agent Winters always did.
"Not this time," Chloe said. Natasha nodded. She understood perfectly.
"Agent Romanoff. Captain Rogers," Coulson did the introductions.
"Ma'am?" Steve gave the typical greeting from his time, something Natasha picked up on fast. She'd heard plenty from Seren but it was far better seeing it right in front of her.
"Hi," she returned before setting eyes on Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. Face time."
"See you there," Coulson practically said only to Steve before leaving.
"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha started. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?" Steve repeated with the expression that this was the first time he was hearing of such a thing.
"They're vintage, he's pretty proud of them."
"O...kay…" Steve nodded. That would be something to check out later on.
"C'mon," Chloe tugged his arm after Natasha.
"Trading cards?"
"Oh yeah! There's a whole set!"
Natasha had found Bruce Banner observing the helicarrier. He seemed pretty nervous which was quite understandable. When Banner noticed that he was being watched, he stiffened and waited for them to start first.
"Dr. Banner," Steve didn't hesitate to greet the man, something Seren liked.
"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming," Banner cleared his throat and shook hands with him.
"Word is you can find the cube."
"...is that the only word on me?"
"Only word I care about."
Banner seemed less nervous after hearing those words. "Must be strange for you, all of this."
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," Steve admitted as he watched several armed men walk by them.
"Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute," Natasha warned them suddenly. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe." Because not a second later did the helicarrier start shaking.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve blinked and looked at the edge where the water seemed to be roaring.
"Really?" Banner suddenly had the nervousness back on his face. "They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?"
Unknowingly, he and Steve both moved closer to the edge. They saw four huge lift fans start lifting them into the air air.
"Oh no, this is much worse," Banner almost lost the ability to breathe in that moment.
"They're like children," Chloe remarked to Natasha beside her, faintly amused at the sight. "Let's go boys! We have people to find!"
~ 0 ~
Chloe and Natasha led Steve and Banner down the helicarrier hallways until they came to the bridge. On occasion, Chloe would have to come back for Steve on account of the man taking everything of the Helicarrier in. When they met Fury on the bridge, Steve handed him the 10 bucks they spoke about the previous day. Well received.
"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury shook hands with Banner.
Banner smiled tightly. "Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."
"Where are you with that?" Banner noticed Natasha and Coulson were staring at a specific computer. However, Natasha's eyes kept flickering to the next computer that held both Seren's and Clint's images.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha sourly said.
"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Banner asked with purpose.
"How many are there?" Fury's answer was the right one.
Banner smiled. "Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. t least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please," Fury instructed and at the same time had her finally tear her gaze off the computer screens.
She led Banner out of the bridge, her last words carrying in. "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."
~0~
Day turned to night fast when they were searching for a homicidal out-of-this-world man. Things had been relatively quiet in the meantime of the search. Natasha had kept a close eye on Banner, making herself scarce everywhere else. Chloe remained in the bridge for the most part but would occasionally disappear helping other agents. Though every time she came back, she always found Steve doing the same thing.
He was in utter awe of all the modern tech around him, how each employee worked and...everything. Everything. He had to get over it, he knew, but it was impossible. Everything and everyone simply worked more efficiently than before. They had the tools to.
Chloe could only guess the thoughts that were running through his head. She was glad that Coulson had managed to pull him aside at least for a couple minutes to distract him. Although it did make her chuckle when she overheard Coulson going on about that vintage set of trading cards he had. Steve being his polite self had of course agreed to sign them on later on.
"We got a hit," Agent Sitwell announced from one of the computers. At his announcement, everyone in the bridge stopped. "Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent."
"Location?" asked Coulson.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
"That doesn't sound right," Chloe mumbled as she turned to leave.
"Captain, you're up," Fury called Steve. "Agent Winters, show him the new suit, will you?"
"Course," she nodded and motioned for her friend to follow. The two entered the corridors quietly as if they were strangers. "I know this is all so weird…but I just want to thank you so much for coming along."
"You don't have to say anything. It's Seren we're talking about, right? And the rest of the world." Steve couldn't fathom ignoring any of it. He needed to see Seren back, see for himself that she was alright.
Chloe nodded. "Did Seren ever tell you how we met?"
"No, I don't think so…"
"I was younger. I wasn't so put together back then. Seren found me when I was 17. She's taken me under her wing ever since. She's always been there for me. She's taken care of me, helped me...I never thought that something would happen to her instead." Chloe picked up her pace to avoid getting emotional. They needed to be focused on the mission.
"Chloe, it's okay to be sad," Steve said, following right behind her. "I'm sad too…" 'Sad' wasn't exactly covering it but he would leave it at that for the sake of time. What Chloe said about Seren sounded exactly like the woman Steve had come to known. Seren had an unusual kindness he didn't see very much in this new world. Everyone seemed deceitful, in a way, with secret motives, but not Seren. Seren was honest because she herself had grown up in the midst of lies. She detested them, as did he. My God, he missed her so much.
Chloe led Steve into the locker room where his suit would be waiting. "I'm sad, but I'm also guilty," she admitted. "She fought Loki to protect us, to protect me, and Loki just took her away. I want him to hurt."
Steve nodded slightly. He had no idea who this Loki, much less what the heck he wanted with the Tesseract, but after reading everything he'd done in New Mexico and who he took, he wholeheartedly agreed with Chloe.
"Here we are," Chloe announced. "Take a look. Between you and me, I think Coulson had some great inputs...don't you think?"
Steve didn't have the answer straightaway. He was taking in his old, but new, suit carefully. He hadn't seen it since he...went down. Seren had offered to bring it by after a few weeks but he had specifically asked her not to. He couldn't look at the thing then. It would bring back too many memories, both good and bad, and he hadn't been ready back then. Looking at it now, though, he wasn't sure if he was as prepared as he hoped to be.
He would concede with Chloe in that the suit did have a better upgrade. At first glance it looked less bulky which would probably make a huge difference in the field. The colors, though the same ones as before, were slightly brighter. He wasn't too sure with the red but he wasn't opposed either. Perhaps it was just a matter of putting it on...just like the first time around.
~ 0 ~
Natasha would be piloting the quinjet so that Steve could freely go into the fight without worry. Chloe was outright furious she wasn't able to go into the field and was forced to take the compromise of staying in the quinjet with Chloe. She did, however, had positioned herself right beside Natasha's chair in case anything warranted her assistance.
Loki indeed was on a swift, quick plan. He had a whole crowd of humans kneeling to him as he commanded it...except for one elderly man who made a show of refusing. He had thin patience for nuisances and so, he raised his scepter, letting it light up blue, before striking. Before the beam reached the elderly man, Steve dove down in front of the man and blocked off the attack with his shield.
That might have felt good.
With the sudden move, the attack reverberated back to Loki and knocked him to the ground.
Steve had helped the elderly man to move away before addressing Loki who, if he paid close attention, wasn't surprised by his presence. "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."
Loki stood back up with his scepter clasped tightly between his hand. "The soldier. A man out of Time."
"I'm not the one who's out of time." The quinjet lowered behind him with Natasha's voice calling out. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."
Loki acted fast and used the scepter against the quinjet. Natasha swiftly moved the jet out of the way. In Loki's moment of annoyance, Steve had the opportunity to throw his shield forwards. It nearly knocked Loki again. He ran directly for Loki for an old-fashion fight.
From above in the quinjet, Chloe watched with a heavy heart. "That's exactly what Seren did," she whispered. It became especially hard to watch when Loki got the scepter to Steve's helmet.
"Stay," Natasha instructed her.
"But—"
Natasha pointed. Steve had knocked Loki down. Of course it lasted short when Loki flipped him to the ground.
"This guy's all over the place," Natasha remarked through the ear comms.
Suddenly, 'Shoot to Thrill' blared over the comms, something Natasha wasn't responsible for. Before she could even suspect who was behind the intrusion, she heard a familiar voice calling out to her.
"Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?"
Natasha rolled her eyes. Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Is he serious?"
Natasha regretfully nodded her head.
Iron Man swiftly blasted Loki to the ground again. As soon as he landed, his suit pulled out every available weapon it had on Loki. "Make your move, Reindeer Games."
Slowly, Loki rose but with his hands raised in surrender. His armor disappeared into nothing.
"Good move," remarked Tony. There was an awkward silence and both Steve and Seren gathered on either side of Tony.
"Mr. Stark," Steve eventually said, finding nothing else to say in the meantime. It was far too weird knowing this was Howard Stark's son. If anything, it was another reminder that Steve hadn't gotten to live his life in his own time with the friends he had made.
"Captain," Tony said curtly.
Eventually they brought Loki into the quinjet with an added layer of security on him to make sure he pulled no tricks while Natasha piloted them back to the helicarrier.
"Has he said anything?" Fury was asking both Natasha and Seren over the comms.
"Nope," went Natasha.
"Not a word." Chloe glanced over her shoulder to see Loki sitting still as ever. He hadn't tried talking nor moving and while normally that's what they would want, Loki pulling these moves only made them even more suspicious. She so desperately wanted to ask him where the mind-controlled agents were.
"Just get him here. We're low on time," Fury said before ending the line.
"I don't like it," Steve said to Tony quietly. Both of them had positioned themselves directly across from Loki, not wanting to give the man any idea that he could try something. Like Chloe, he was wondering where the compromised agents were. Why stash them?
"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"
"I don't remember it being ever that easy. This guy packs a wallop."
"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?"
Steve was naturally lost with the conversation and much more how they had even gotten to that. "What?"
"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."
Alright, that was a point Steve didn't have to stand for. He was getting the faint feeling that, like Tony, neither knew they would be meeting each other tonight.
"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in." For that, Steve also cast a look in Chloe's direction, wondering if she knew about this detail. That would've been something worthy to mention.
Tony, however, didn't seem as surprised as Steve. He was more irritated. "Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you," he said as if he had already had experience.
The sky roared with thunder and lightning, hitting the jet every now and then. The passengers rocked with the jet.
Natasha was getting tired as she kept looking out to the sky. "Where's this coming from!?"
"It shouldn't be like this." Chloe had done her due diligence and checked out the weather for them prior to the mission. There were no reports of stormy weather back then and even now, as she checked it again on their tablet, the reports claimed clear skies. There really was no excuse for any of this to be happening.
After yet another jolt of thunder struck the jet, Steve noticed Loki's weary look towards the windows. That was certainly strange. "What's the matter?" He called to the silent man. "Scared of a little lightning?"
"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki answered honestly, yet another sign.
The next time the jet shook, it was as if something - or someone - had landed on it. The blinding light that accompanied it certainly made it seem so. An armored man with long blonde hair opened up the ramp and grabbed Loki by the throat. Loki barely had time to blink before his brother jumped out with him.
Everyone else was left dumbstruck by the sight.
"Thor!" Chloe jumped out of her chair, bonking her head on top. "Ow!"
Tony snapped his helmet on and stood up. "Now there's that guy."
"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked but Steve felt like there was a more important question that should be addressed.
"That's Thor, he and Seren were on good terms," Chloe said, having Steve agree. "Maybe he's come to help!"
"Seren was confident that he would should we ever need him," Steve said, and right now he couldn't think of a better ally. Seren had gone into great detail describing Thor and his impressive abilities. At that point, Steve wasn't overly fond of the Asgardian but right now...he needed everything that got them one step closer to finding Seren.
"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Tony made way for the ramp to jump out.
"You can't just jump off!" Chloe called to him as she tried to make her own way forwards. The jet was still shaking from the turbulence.
Steve agreed with her. "Stark, we need a plan of attack!"
Tony saw nothing of the sort. "I have a plan: attack." He promptly jumped out of the jet.
"He's deranged!" Chloe huffed and looked back to Natasha, knowing that she had already met Tony a while back.
"Don't look at me!" The redhead said quickly. She was very clear on her thoughts of Tony joining S.H.I.E.L.D. in any capacity.
Chloe heaved a heavy sigh and nearly lost it when she saw Steve going for a parachute. "Oh hell no!" She snapped at him. "You can't go out there! You have not seen what Thor can do!"
"She's right," Natasha called to him. "These guys come from legends, they're basically gods."
"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."
"Steve, wait—" Chloe groaned when he jumped out of the quinjet. "Men, they're all the same no matter what species they are! Four men with powerful weapons and no supervision? That's ground zero for some senseless violence."
At that, Natasha would concede.
~ 0 ~
As it turned out, Chloe was right. There was indeed a fight that ultimately ended with all sides coming together on the most important factor: Loki had the Tesseract and it shouldn't be. S.H.I.E.L.D. successfully gained Loki's imprisonment and for the time being, Thor would be their ally.
"Well, it only took half a frikin forest to get you to calm down…" Chloe folded her arms across her chest as she settled the same scolding look on each of the men standing before her in the bridge. The only one safe was Banner. "Men. Why do you always resort to violence?"
"Hey, he's the one who threw the hammer," Tony pointed an armor-less finger towards Thor at the side of the bridge.
Chloe rolled her eyes, clearly not interested in the excuses they had. Natasha merely watched the spectacle happen with calculating eyes as if she was expecting another fight to happen soon.
"I fought because you fought," went Thor, of course prompting yet another response from Tony.
"Because you took the prisoner, genius!"
"ENOUGH!" Chloe screamed, her eyes raging blue for a moment. It froze everyone in their tracks.
"Chloe, we're sorry," Steve said. "Things got a little carried away but we are sorry."
Tony was shooting him a look expressing he wasn't that sorry. Thor remained stoic.
Chloe shook her head at all three of them again. "Alright. We need to focus on what to do next."
"We didn't exactly get much out of that, did we?" Tony made a gesture towards the monitor in the room that had given them front row seats to the mini-interrogation Fury had with the now imprisoned Loki. Loki hadn't said anything promising about the Tesseract, merely taking jabs at Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. collectively.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve thought that if anyone would know how to deal with Loki, it would be his brother.
As tensed as the air was, Thor answered him honestly, "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
There was silence as everyone digested Thor's words. It really was a lot to take in, especially for those plucked out of time.
"An army? From outer space?" Steve truly had the hardest time believing half the things he was hearing but knowing what he knew, he wouldn't discard it.
"I seem to recall Twinkle Star isn't exactly an Earthly citizen of ours?" Tony remarked but the others were left confused.
"Who?" Natasha was the one to ask.
"Oh, sorry, Agent Seren Soul. I've gone through her files and she's an alien like these guys," Tony jerked a thumb in Thor's direction. "I nicknamed her Twinkle Star."
"Stop calling her that!" snapped Chloe. "And just so we're clear, Seren was born on Earth not Celessia. She's as much as a human as we are with the same claim to Earth."
"Lady of the stars," Thor recalled the name with a light smile. Of course when he remembered her current state, the smile vanished. "I am sorry that Loki has done this to her but rest assured that I will not leave until she is safely returned."
"Well, we can safely assume that Loki's trying to build another portal with the tesseract," Banner said. "It's why he needed Erik Selvig for."
"Selvig?" Thor cut in.
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with Seren and another agent of ours," Natasha explained.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve spoke the thought that had been running through his head ever since they had custody of Loki. "He's not leading an army from here."
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Banner's comment sparked new tension between them and Thor.
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."
"He killed 80 people in 2 days," Chloe said flatly. She was pleased to see that it took effect on Thor, proving that he really was different from Loki. He felt guilt.
"He's adopted…?" He said slowly.
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent. Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Tony started walking around the bridge, casually with a secret agenda in mind. "It means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." His eyes scanned the employees working fervently at their posts and suddenly, he called out to them. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man—" He pointed a particular man in the corner, "—is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He slapped a hand over his right eye. "How does Fury do this?"
Maria came beside him, thankfully answering for them because Chloe was on the verge of losing her marbles. "He turns."
Tony shrugged and moved around a bit more, silently slipping in a small hacking device under Fury's own desk. "Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Natasha called to him. The last time they met, he knew nothing of the sort.
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
Steve wouldn't even bother with the senseless things Tony was saying. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner answered, prompting Tony to turn towards him.
"Unless, 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."
Tony made a dramatic gesture towards Banner. "Finally, someone who speaks English."
"Is that what just happened?" Steve looked around for the other's reactions and saw they were just as puzzled as he was. English had not been spoken there.
"It is good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said, perhaps the first honest line since he'd stepped aboard the helicarrier. "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."
"Thanks…" Banner said slowly, obviously not that appreciative of the last remark.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him," Fury said as he walked into the bridge.
"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve suggested. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn my strong agent and two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys?" Thor asked, his eyes flickering in the room as if said monkeys would appear right there and then. "I do not understand."
"I do!" Steve suddenly exclaimed, quite proud of himself at that moment. "I understood that reference!" Of course then he realized they were talking about Seren. Suddenly, the excitement wore off.
Tony rolled his eyes at him then then turned to Banner. "Shall we play, doctor?" He would much rather spend time with the only man capable of understanding his words,
"Let's play some," Banner agreed and walked off with him.
A/N:
As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"