Chapter 3:
[Nick Fury POV]
[1 day later, SHIELD HQ, New York City]
"This is out of line, Director. You're dealing with forces you cannot control," One of the World security council members says to me. I force myself not to roll my eyes, "You ever been in a war, councilman? A firefight? You don't really have a lot of control." The councilman sighs in annoyance, "Are you saying this Asgard is declaring war on our world?" "No, not Asgard. Loki," I tell them. "This Loki cannot be working alone. What of the other one? His brother Thor?" the councilwoman questions. "Intel team has tagged him as non-hostile. He's worlds away. We can't depend on him to help either. It's up to us," I say. "Which is why you should be focusing your resources on Phase-2," Councilman Malick cuts in. The man is a little too eager to have phase-2 complete for my liking. "Phase-2 isn't ready. Our enemy is," I tell them, "We need to jump-start project AVENGERS."
[Karai POV]
[Mission-room.] I punch the wall, cracking the surface. "This is bull shit! Clint wouldn't jump sides!" I snap. "I know. It wasn't his choice. You read the report. Loki did something to him," Spartan says. My fists still shake with rage and concern, "It doesn't matter if it wasn't his choice. He's compromised. The higher-ups will blacklist him, and they'll send a team to cross Clint off." Spartan crosses-arms, "They won't." I shoot my best friend and partner with a skeptical gaze, "How are you so sure?" "Because we're going to get to Clint first and bring him home and take down that fuck Loki in the process," Spartan barks, eyes flashing with determination. "Does Nat know?" I ask. Spartan nods, "Yeah, Coulson told her." At that moment, Fury and Cap walk into the mission-room.
On the main computer screen, Fury puts up an image of the Tesseract. "HYDRA's secret weapon," Cap murmurs. "Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you, Cap," Fury says, "He thought the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That something the world's sorely needs." Cap crosses his arms, "Who took it from you?" "A man named Loki," Fury tells him, "He's not from around here. There's a lot we're going to have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten a lot stranger than the world you knew." "At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me," Cap says somewhat bitterly. Fury looks him over a little sadly, "Ten bucks says you're wrong." Cap sighs, "We'll see." "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract we need to know now?" Fury asks Cap. "You should've left it in the ocean," He tells Fury. Cap faces us, "Get your gear together. We're out in 30." "Copy that, Boss," Spartan and I say to Cap in unison.
[Spartan POV]
[Atlantic Ocean]
[Quinjet.] "We're about 40 minutes out from home-base, sir," the pilot informs Cap and Coulson. Coulson gets off the comms system and walks over to Cap and us. "Hey, AC, see Fury drag you into this op, too," Karai says. "Yeah. This is a level-7. All-hands-on-deck," Coulson says. "Shit, it's really that bad, huh," I say. He nods. "Bad enough to bring in Stark," Karai says. The venom in her tone is hard to miss. To say Karai and I weren't Stark fans is a massive understatement. Why? Well, we have our reasons. It wasn't too long ago Stark been known by another name, The Merchant of Death. I lost count of the lives that man destroyed with his weapons due to this carelessness and lack of responsibility. The funny thing is, he wasn't always like that. The death of his parents changed him for the worse. At least according to the people close to Tony Stark.
Cap is busy reading through the dossier on the other members of the AVENGERS. "So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the BIO-ENHANCER used on me?" "A lot of people were. You were the world's first living superhero," Coulson says, "Banner thought gamma radiation was the key to unlock Erskine's original formula." "Guessing Howard didn't tell him he broke the code," Cap says. "No. Never even met. At the time, Banner was working under a man named General Thaddeus Ross. A bonafide asshole in every sense of the word. Going by what Fury said, Howard Stark didn't like or trust the man. Neither did Fury," I say. Looking at the tablet's feed, "Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve says. "Not so much. When he's not the Hulk. Banner's like Stephen Hawking," Coulson tells Cap. Cap gives Coulson a confused look. "He's a brilliant person," Coulson explains, "I got to say. It's an honor to meet you officially?" Cap shoots him a friendly smile in thanks.
"I've sort of met you already. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping," Coulson tells Steve. We could see Cap is starting to get a little uncomfortable. It took everything Karai, and I had not laughed at what was going down between the two. "What Coulson is trying to say is that he was the salvage team when they fished you out the ice," Karai says, trying to help her old mentor. "Right. That," Coulson says. Cap nods in understanding, "I just hope I'm the right man for the job." "You are, Boss," I say. Karai nods in agreement, so does Coulson.
[SHIELD Helicarrier]
As we disembark the quinjet, we're met by Natasha Romanoff, AKA the Black Widow. "Nat. This is Steve Rogers," Coulson introduces. "So, you're the team leader of Fury's new team. Nice to meet you," she says, shaking Cap's hand. Nat turns to Coulson, "Fury wants you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace." Coulson starts to walk off, "See you in a bit. Karai, with me." They both walk inside the Helicarrier. "It was quite the buzz around here about you three in the last few days. Especially you, Captain. Post ice and all. Did Coulson swoon?" Nat asks. "Yup. Fanboyed and everything. It was entertaining to watch," I say. "I'm sure," she says. Nat shifts to Cap, "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading card yet?" "Trading cards?" Cap asks. "They're vintage. He's very proud," she says, teasing like a little sister about an older brother.
Three of us cross paths with the man we were talking about earlier. "Dr. Banner," Cap calls. The man's attention falls on us three, then his eyes fall on Cap. "Yeah. Hi. They told me you would be coming," Banner says. He and Cap shake hands. "Word is, you can find the cube," Cap says. Banner looks around a little nervously, "Is that the only word on me?" "It's the only word we care about," Cap tells the man. Banner nods his head in thanks for not seeing him as a monster. "This must be strange for you, all of this," Banner says, indicating the Helicarrier. Cap takes a glance around, "Well, this is kind of familiar." I get the call that we're about to take off. I walk over to Banner and Cap, "Guys, we should start heading in. It's going to get a little hard to breathe." At that moment, the engines are starting to power up. "Is this a submarine?" Cap asks. "Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?" Banner says. Both of them step to the edge to see the massive rotors ascending the Helicarrier into the sky. "No, no, this is much worst," Banner says. I smile and make my way past Nat, "See you inside."
[Bridge.] I move to Karai, who is at a computer station. Checking every possible sighting of Loki or Clint. "Any luck?" I ask my partner. "Nothing yet," she says. Karai looks over her shoulder, "The Helicarrier reminds me of a Sci-fi military starship you see in movies." "Still cool," I say. "I never said it wasn't," Karai comments. Cap, Banner, and Nat walked onto the bridge. Cap eyes around the bridge, completely amazed. Banner, however, is nervous. "Reflection panels are engaged," one of the tech guys calls out. Fury turn to face Cap and Banner, "Gentlemen." Cap pulls out a roll of cash and hand Fury a ten-dollar bill. 'Least the man knows to honor his bets.' Fury shoots him a smirk and takes the bill. He walks to Banner, "Doctor, thank you for coming," holding out a hand. Banner takes the hand, "Thank you for asking. So how long am I staying?" "Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind," Fury tells the man. "Where are you with that?" Banner asks. Fury points to Coulson, who stands close by. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phone, laptop… If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us," Coulson says.
"That's still not going to find them in time," Nat says, hovering over a tech crew's shoulder to the screen. 'Hate it when people do that.' "You got to narrow the field," Banner says, "How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Fury folds his arms over his chest, "How many are there?" It was a rhetorical question. SHIELD could get access to as many as they needed. "Tell 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, basic cluster recognition. At least we can rule out a few places," Banner tells everyone, "Got someplace for me to work?" Fury nods, "Agent Romanoff, please show Dr. Banner to his lab." She walks by Banner, "You're going to love it, Doc. We got all the cool toys."
I notice Coulson is asking Cap if he could sign his vintage trading cards set. I couldn't help but smile at the display. Karai notices as well, "Well, never thought I see Coulson fanboying." "Yeah, I know. It's nice to see this side of him," I say. "I heard a rumor he has a thing for Agent May," Karai says, catching me by surprise. "Wait. what?" I state, shocked. "As I said, it's only a rumor," Karai tells me. That moment the computer tags a sighting. "Got a hit on Loki," we both call out. "Location?" Coulson asks. "Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse," I say. "Captain. You and your team are up," Fury says to Cap. Cap nods, looks to us, "Spartan. Karai. On me." "Right behind you, Boss," Karai says.
[Stuttgart, Germany]
The three of us land on a nearby rooftop. Karai quickly set her sniper rifle at the ready. Down on street level, civilians run out of a building in panic and fear. The target, Loki, right behind them. Two police cars drive down the street. Loki fires an energy blast, flipping the two vehicles. Suddenly another Loki appears in front of the running civilians, followed by another and another. Four Lokis surround the scared innocent civilians. "Kneel before me," he says. Out of sheer panic, they didn't hear him. Loki slams the staff to the ground, "KNEEL!" Slowly every person in the middle drops to one knee.
Loki grins, "Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state?" He starts to walk into the middle of the crowd, "It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave Subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." Karai growls, "I'm shooting this fucker in the eye." "Hold on," I say. An old man stands up in defiance, "Not to men like you." Despite the grin, Loki's eyes flash with rage, "There are none like me." The old man shakes his head, "There are always men like you." Loki raises the staff, "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." He fires. Acting fast, Cap jumps in front of the old man, blocking the shot with his shield. The blast ricochets back to Loki, sending him flying.
We both jump down to join Cap. "You know, the last time I was in Germany, saw a man standing above everyone else; we ended up disagreeing." "The soldiers," Loki hisses, "And the man out of time which leads them." "I'm not the one out of time," Cap says. The Quinjet comes flying in, piloted by Nat, "Loki, drop your weapon and stand down." Loki fires on the Quinjet. The shot misses. Drawing my pistol, Karai and I shoot Loki in the center mass. The bullets had minimal effect on him. Cap sprints in close, engaging Loki in melee combat. Cap hit Loki with a solid right-hook-punch. Loki is stunned but still standing on his feet. Loki swings the staff at Cap, but he dodges the attack. Cap comes back swinging, hitting Loki with a combination of boxing strikes. The last blow is to the Asgardian's liver, then Cap hits him with a spinning back kick to the chest.
Loki pulls a sneak attack in desperation and hits Cap with his staff, sending him falling back. Cap gets to his knee, but Loki's on him, the staff at the ready. "Kneel," he orders. "Not today!" I yell, running at Loki, jumping in the air, and hitting him with a jump-elbow. The strike cracks Loki's lip. "Not pretty anymore, aren't you, fucker," Karai sneers. Loki gets to his feet, readying to go for another round. Suddenly our comlink is bombarded with a rock musical theme, followed by Tony Stark's voice, "Agent Romanoff. You miss me?" In his Iron Man armor, Tony Stark flies in, firing his repulsors at Loki, knocking him on his ass. "Make your move, Reindeer Games," Tony says, keeping his weapons train on Loki. Cap, Karai, and I move to him. "Stark," Cap says. "Captain," he says in return. Loki slowly raises his hands in surrender. Cap, Karai, and I all glance at each other, thinking the same thing. 'This was too easy. Something was off.'
[Quinjet.] "Is he saying anything?" Fury asks over the comlink. "Not a word," Nat tells him. "Just get him here. We're low on time," Fury says, ending the call. Karai keeps her eyes on Loki. "I don't like this," Cap voices to Tony and me. "What, Rock of Ages?" Tony retorts. I roll my eyes. "I don't remember it ever being that easy. The guy packs a punch," Cap clarifies. "Still, you pretty spry for an older fellow. What's your thing, Pilates?" he says to Cap. 'Leave it to Tony Stark to be a needlessly antagonistic asshole.' Cap peers at him, annoyed, "What?" "It's like calisthenics," Tony says, "You might have missed a couple of things doing time as a capsule." "Do yourself a favor, Cap, ignore him. It'll keep you sane," I say, "Or punch him the throat. That'll definitely get him to shut up." Suddenly there's heavy lightning outside. "Where the hell the lightning comes from. Are we crossing a storm?" Karai questions. Loki is physically shaking with anxiety. "What? Scared of lightning?" I ask. "I'm not fond of what follows," Loki says cryptically. The quinjet jerks violently.
Looking up, the HUD tags one target. Tony quickly places on his helmet and opens the rear door of the quinjet. A muscular blond man enters; his body crackles with electricity. Iron Man aims his repulsor, but the large man quickly takes Ironman down with his hammer, sending him falling over Cap. The blonde turns to Loki, grabs him by the neck, and takes off flying. 'So that's what follows.' Ironman gets to his feet, along with Cap. "Another Asgardian?" Nat queries. "Is that guy friendly?" Cap states. "Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract is lost," Ironman says, walking off. "Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Cap calls out. "I have a plan. Attack," he says, going off after the two Asgardians. "And people wonder why we don't like him," I say. Cap grabs three parachutes, tosses two over to Karai and me, "We're going after them." "I'd sit this one, guys," Nay says. "Not going to happen. Loki's our collar. He's our responsibility," I say. "Plus, we need him to get Clint back," Karai interjects. "These guys come from legends. They're basically gods," Nat tells us. "There's only one god, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that," Cap says to her. The three of us leap out of the quinjet.
[Wooded mountains]
As we come in for a landing, we watch as Ironman gets his ass handed to him by Thor. For the majority of the fight, Thor is tossing around Ironman like a rag doll. To our surprise, Loki is close by, not even trying to run away. I didn't like it. We land. Rolling to his feet, Cap tosses his shield, hitting both Thor and Ironman, "Hey! That's enough. Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here." "I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes," Thor tells him. "Then prove it. Put the hammer down," Cap demands. "Yeah… No. Bad call. He loves his hammer," Ironman says. Thor backhands Ironman with his hammer, sending him crashing to the ground. "YOU WANT ME TO PUT THE HAMMER DOWN?!" Thor roars. Thor leaps at Cap, dropping the hammer down. Cap blocks the blow with his shield. The shockwave sends us all falling on our backs.
Regaining consciousness, I slowly get to my feet. 'Well, I'm going to feel that tomorrow.' "Is everyone okay?" Karai says. Everyone is now standing, facing each other. "Are we done here?" Cap asks Thor. The man peers at the super-soldier, shocked that his shield stood against a blow from his hammer. "Aye, we are done," Thor says. I glance up to see Loki still hadn't moved. I fire a grappling line, pull him down to us. Karai taps the comlink, "Nat, we need a pickup."