Chapter Seven

Back on the helicarrier, Director Fury had me join him when they put Loki in the glass cage.

"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass," Director Fury was telling Loki as he was pressing buttons on the screen next to him.

The hatch below the cage opened, and Loki walked over to the glass to look down.

"It's a 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap," Director Fury yelled over the wind. "You get how that works?" He pressed a button again, and the hatch closed. "Ant," he gestured to Loki, then gesturing to the button as he said his next statement, "boot."

Loki merely laughed and stepped back into the middle of the cage.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." Loki turned his head to look at the camera. "A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" He turned around to look at me as he talked.

Director Fury moved to stand in front of me as he countered Loki.

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Oh. It burns you to have 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."

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Director Fury scoffed and started walking away.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

Not long after Director Fury left the room, I turned and left to go to the bridge. I didn't like the way Loki had looked at me. It's as if he knows I'm a witch. But that's not possible, only Director Fury, Agent Coulson, and Agent Hill know that…

Agent Barton.

He has such good eyesight it's possible he could have seen something and kept it to himself before Loki came along. Who else may have heard that then?

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Doctor Banner was saying as I walked in.

Captain Rogers started speaking, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor answered. "They're not of Asgard, nor 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, from outer space."

"So," Doctor Banner spoke up, "he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor questioned.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Agent Romanoff told Thor, "along with one of ours."

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Captain Rogers stated. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't we should be focusing on Loki," Doctor Banner said to him. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother," Thor defended Loki.

I spoke up. "He killed 80 people in two days."

"He's adopted."

Of course, he is I thought to myself.

There was a slight pause in the conversation before Doctor Banner started talking again.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium… What do they need the iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Mr. Stark said as soon as he walked through the door. He turned to Agent Coulson, "I'm just saying pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."

Agent Coulson just nodded and pointed to a direction before he and Mr. Stark went their separate ways. Agent Coulson to the back of the room, and Mr. Stark to where the rest of us were gathered.

"It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing."

Mr. Stark patted Thor's bicep with the back of his hand as he walked by.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

He turned to look at some of the agents that were seated at computers.

"Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails. That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Mr. Stark then lifted his left eye with his hand before lowering it again.

"How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Agent Hill told him while giving me an it-should-be-pretty-obvious look as I stood next to Agent Coulson.

"Sounds exhausting," he said while adjusting something on the screens. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" I asked him.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Captain Rogers cut in.

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Dr. Banner answered him.

"Unless," Mr. Stark added, "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."

"Is that what just happened?" Captain Rogers asked.

Mr. Stark went up to Dr. Banner and shook his hand.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

I rolled my eyes at his statement.

"Thanks," was all Dr. Banner could say to him before Director Fury entered the bridge.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," he told us as he approached the table where some of the others were seated and motioned me to join him. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his," Captain Rogers told them. "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 would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor questioned, "I do not understand."

"I do," Captain Rogers was quick to inform. I saw Mr. Stark roll his eyes at him. "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Mr. Stark asked Dr. Banner.

"This way, sir," Dr. Banner replied leading Mr. Stark in the direction of his lab.

I followed Director Fury over to where Agent Coulson and Thor were talking.

"War hasn't started yet," he told Thor. "You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

"I do not know," Thor answered. "Loki's mind is a far afield. It's not just power he craves, it's vengeance, upon me. There's no pain would prise his need from him."

"A lot of guys think that until the pain starts."

"What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?"

"Loki is a prisoner."

"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?"

All of a sudden, we got a warning across the screens.

Virus Detected

Unauthorized Access

When I looked at Director Fury, I could almost see the gears turning in his head as he figured out who it could be.

A minute later, I heard Agent Romanoff over our earpieces as Director Fury lead us to the lab.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way. Send Thor as well."

As soon as she finished her message to us, we arrived at the lab.

"What are you doing Mr. Stark?" Director Fury asked him.

"Uh, kind of wondering the same thing about you," was all Mr. Stark said.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are," Dr. Banner informed. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"48% done Director," I told him.

"Yeah," Mr. Stark started saying, "then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss."

His computer beeped and pulled something up.

"What is 'Phase 2'?"

I heard this clanging behind me. When I turned around, Captain Rogers was standing there, with a prototype gun on the table next to him.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Director Fury told him. "This does not mean that we're making…"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Mr. Stark said, turning around his screen to show us the plan for a weapon. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director," Captain Rogers aimed at Director Fury. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

At that moment, Thor entered the room followed by Agent Romanoff.

"Did you know about this?" Dr. Banner asked her.

She took a couple more steps before replying.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Director Fury answered, pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor questioned.

"Last year," I informed them, "Earth had a visitor from a another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town."

"We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Director Fury said to everyone.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor told us.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you control the Cube?" Captain Rogers questioned Director Fury.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor but in. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?"

"You forced our hand," Director Fury said. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent," Mr. Stark cut in. "Because that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."

"I'm sure if he still made weapons," Captain Rogers started, "Stark would be neck-deep…"

"Hold on," Mr. Stark said. How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor stated.

"Excuse me," Director Fury turned to Thor, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"You treat your champions with such mistrust."

"You understand…" I heard Captain Rogers say before I focused on what Agent Romanoff was saying.

"Are you boys really that naïve? S.H.E.I.L.D. monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Dr. Banner questioned her.

"Everyone is. Even people that you may not suspect," I answered him.

"Wait, you're on that list?" I heard Mr. Stark ask Captain Rogers. "Are you above or below angry bee?"

"Stark," Captain Rogers started, "so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack…"

"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened."

"Show some respect."

Everyone was talking at once, and I had a hard time hearing was everyone was saying. Even with my hearing, which is better than others.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor said.

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Dr. Banner asked. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We-we're a time bomb."

"Dr. Banner," I started, "you need to step away."

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Mr. Stark asked, putting his hand on Captain Rogers' shoulder.

"You know damn well why. Back off!" Captain Rogers said to him, pushing Mr. Stark's hand off of his shoulder.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah," Captain Rogers started, walking to the other side of Mr. Stark. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Mr. Stark answered matter-of-factly.

Agent Romanoff and I exchanged looks.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. And I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be hero."

"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

Thor started laughing.

"You people are so petty and tiny."

"Yeah this is a team," Dr. Banner said.

"Agent Olson, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his…"

"Where? You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case…"

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried."

There was a stretch of silence before Dr. Banner continued talking.

"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 and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

I saw Dr. Banner pick up the scepter, and so did everyone else. Director Fury and Agent Romanoff were reaching and preparing their guns, and I was reaching for my wand.

"Dr. Banner," Captain Rogers started, "put down the scepter."

The computer started beeping, signaling that the signal was found, and we all turned towards it.

"Got it," Director Fury notified us.

"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," was all Dr. Banner could day to us.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I could get there fastest," Mr. Stark put out in the open.

Technically I could get there fastest, I thought to myself.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor told us. "No human is a match for it."

Captain Rogers reached out to stop Mr. Stark from leaving, "You're not going alone?"

"You're gonna stop me?" Mr. Stark asked him, slapping the Captain's hand away from him.

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

"Oh, my God," Dr. Banner said from next to the computer.

Suddenly there was an explosion and the whole helicarrier shook. While we were all thrown to the ground, Agent Romanoff and Dr. Banner were flown out the big window.

"Put on the suit," I heard Captain Rogers say to Mr. Stark.

"Yeah," Mr. Stark replied, as the both of them got up and left the room.

"Go with them," Director Fury told me.

"Yes, sir," I replied, getting up and running after Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark.