Percy watched through the security camera as Loki was escorted into a large glass cell that was being held by hydraulic rigs. He could see Director Fury outside the cell. He glanced up once, taking in everyone else.

Dr. Banner had shown up from his lab to listen to the interrogation. Besides him, Nat and Captain America were sitting with Percy at the meeting table on the bridge, while Thor was standing up, listening to what was said.

Agent Hill was watching as well.

Stark so far was nowhere in sight, as well as Agent Coulson.

"In case it's unclear," Director Fury was saying to the god trapped in the glass cell. "You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass."

Fury pressed a button on the control panel which opened up a hatch underneath the cell. Percy raised an eyebrow. That was impressive.

Loki was peering through the glass downwards.

Fury was shouting over the noise of gusting wind, "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

He closed the hatch and pointed at Loki, "Ant."

Then he pointed at the button, "Boot."

Percy could feel a little amusement fill him at that. He had seen the first exchange in between Loki and the director from the directors mind after the campus was destroyed. So he was allowed to take a little amusement from it.

A part of Percy even thought that the director had shared the memory on purpose.

He focused back in on the exchange as Loki said, smirking, "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

Director Fury responded, "Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh I've heard," Loki responded.

Percy looked up towards Dr. Banner. He had read Agent Hill's mind about that cage. He knew who it had been intended for.

He listened as Loki continued to speak, taking in Banner's intent expression, "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Fury responded sounding angry.

Percy turned his attention back to the screen, "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," Loki nearly purred as he moved around the cage, his gaze flicking towards the camera, as if he knew they were watching. "It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

Director Fury began to walk off, calling over his shoulder, "Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something."

"Actually," Loki said, still smirking as the director stopped walking. "Perhaps you could send Agent Jackson down after your done with your little meeting about everything I've said."

Fury didn't respond and a moment later the footage cut off.

Percy looked up, meeting Natasha's gaze for a moment. He almost didn't want to know what exactly Loki wanted to talk to him about.

Almost.

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Steve was getting actually concerned. Loki had pretty much announced back during their fight in Germany that he should have taken over the kid's mind. And now he wanted to talk to him. That, for Steve at the very least was a very bad idea.

He frowned as he looked up at Dr. Banner as the scientist said, "He really grow's on you, doesn't he?"

Steve glanced around the table as he spoke up, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor blinked and turned to face them, moving closer to the table as he spoke, "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. they will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army?" Steve said slowly. "From outer space?"

Why, oh why, couldn't the weirdest thing that has ever happened to him be his birth as Captain America?

"So he's building another portal," Dr. Banner said. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist," Dr. Banner explained.

"He's a friend," Thor responded quietly.

Steve turned his head as Agent Romanoff finally spoke up, "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."

He took in the kid laying a hand on Natasha's own, in a comforting way as the kid added, "My partner at the campus we were keeping the Tesseract at. . . at least before Loki destroyed it when he came in."

Steve paused, studying the kid's worried facial expression. So far, the kid was focusing on the conversation and not about going down there and confronting Loki.

Finally Steve turned back to everyone else, "I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Dr. Banner said as he moved a little closer to the table. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor nearly snapped as he focused in on Dr. Banner. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

Steve turned his head as Agent Romanoff said, almost tiredly, "He killed eighty people in two days."

"And enslaved three," the kid added.

There was a pause from Thor for a moment before he said, "He's adopted."

Steve shook his head as Dr. Banner spoke up again, changing the subject, "I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent."

Steve turned his head and spotted Stark coming in with Agent Coulson. Howard's son said a few things to the agent before turning back to the rest of them.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD," Stark finished explaining.

Then he added as he walked by Thor, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing."

He patted Thor on the arm and walked towards the Directors control panel as he continued, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

Steve was having trouble following everything Stark was saying as he spoke to the crew on the bridge, "Uh, raise the midmast, ship the top sails."

All of them stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

And then Stark pointed towards one of the crew, "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."

Then he turned back to the control panel and asked Agent Hill, "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," she said.

"Well, that sounds exhausting." Stark said, as he began to flick things off the screens. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power supply. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

He had turned and headed back to the table as he said that. Steve was frowning trying to piece together what exactly the man had been saying.

Agent Hill then spoke up, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night," Stark responded. "The packet. Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

Steve sighed and asked, "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," Dr. Banner responded.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Stark said brightly as he headed over to Dr. Banner.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," the doctor responded.

"Finally," Stark said with a grin as Steve's head spun, "someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked as he rubbed his temple.

He watched as Dr. Banner and Stark shake hands feeling very, very confused.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Stark was saying. "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."

Steve flinched at that as Dr. Banner looked down and muttered, "Thanks."

He glanced up as the director came in, saying, "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him, Mr. Stark."

"Let's start with that stick of his," suggested Steve, trying to not remember how many men had been killed in the past by something similar. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that," Fury responded, "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."

"Monkey?" Thor said in confusion as Steve thought about that reference. "I do not understand."

Steve perked up, "I do!"

Everyone stared at him and he added swiftly, trying not to be embarrassed, "I understood that reference."

He felt rather proud of being able to remember that movie.

"Shall we play, doctor?" Stark said to Dr. Banner.

"A moment, please," Fury said, sounding a little worried about something. "We still have one more thing to discuss."

Steve nodded and said, quietly, "Whether or not to allow Agent Jackson to talk with Loki like he requested."

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Percy frowned once Cap said that before speaking up, "I didn't think it would be much of a problem, sir. If he wants to talk to me, he might spill something we can use."

"I don't like it," the Director said firmly. "He's up to something."

Percy rolled his eyes, "Of course he is. Just listen in on whatever he's going to say to me. I'm sure you were already planning on doing so."

Next to him Natasha shook her head, "I don't think that this is a good idea."

"Yeah, kid," Stark said. "He's already gotten a rise out of you once."

"He only managed to do that because I was thinking about some. . . unhappy things," Percy said crossly. "He won't do it again. I can control myself, sir."

"Speaking of," Cap finally spoke up. "Does anyone want to tell me why the kid has, may I say, unnatural abilities? Causing things to float? Projecting feelings on others? That's not normal."

Percy tensed for a moment, glancing over at Director Fury. The man's face was unreadable, as was his mind.

Percy finally lost control of his temper and jumped to his feet, feeling his frustration reach boiling point.

He glared as Captain Rogers for about a second before he snapped, "Alright, fine. You want to know what happened to me? I was experimented on by criminals to be an asset for their cause. Those experiments caused me to develop super-human abilities, super strength, agility, and senses as well as telepathy and telekinesis. SHIELD saved my life from being a toy for powerful criminals and gave me a new purpose. Now, if you, Steve Rogers, think you can keep me from doing my job, you have another think coming! I am not a defenseless child! Now if you don't mind, I'm going down to have a chat with Loki!"

Then he spun towards the exit and stomped out of the bridge, heading for the brig.