Chapter 2 – Meet Hawkeye
A/n – Frankly I'm astonished by the reception that this story has received when I only put the first chapter up very recently. I'm very flattered. Here's a little clarification on a few things that I feel I need to mention. 1. Toni's personality is not the same as Tony's – I thought I should make this clear because the fact that she's a girl influences things, 2. I have very set views of my headcanon for the original Tony so those will probably show up, 3. There will be extra scenes but I won't be removing any, 4. The scenes with the most changes will of course be Toni's (especially her introduction, you have been warned although the lines will be mostly the same who's saying them will be different)
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books – I'm glad the start has you interested. To answer your question, I own the Avengers 6-Movie Collection Box Set and I've taken most of the dialogue aside from a few alterations and new scenes straight from the subtitles unless I believe they're wrong. I'm flattered that you're making an exception for my story :)
Guest – Thank you for one of the first kind anonymous reviews I've gotten. I'm glad you have hope for this story and hope I can live up to any expectations you have.
youwannabekate – Believe me I have no idea either but I hope you enjoy my version of the AU
XxxBellaBellaxxX – Yes Toni is currently with Piper in this story :)
You could practically feel the tension that was emanating throughout the silent room as the sinister voice made its first statement. None of them really wanted to watch these movies because what if Amora had been right and this was enough to split them apart. Clint was arguably the most nervous for he didn't want to know what he had done whilst under Loki's control. He wasn't sure he could cope with the guilt which he would end up bearing; it didn't matter that he knew that he had no choice in the matter. And despite Toni's insistence that they should get watching the disk over with there were several things that she thought might be in here that she was uncomfortable with getting out.
Yet neither of them stopped watching as the voiceover continued:
"It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will."
"I think we're familiar enough with it now," Clint muttered but it was quiet enough in the room that everyone heard the comment and nodded in agreement.
The scene changed to show Loki receiving his sceptre, "he is ready to lead."
Thor's face darkened at the first sign of his brother in the film. The other Avengers had a feeling that he would be doing a lot of that over the course of the movie. Loki hadn't even visibly done anything yet so they feared how Thor would react to his actions from when he wasn't present.
"And our force, our Chitauri, will follow." One of the many warriors of the Chitauri was shown before the view expanded to show the sheer number of alien warriors.
"A world will be his, the universe, yours."
As the screen switched back to another shot of the Tesseract Bruce began to muse out loud, "so who was Loki really working for? This just proved that he wasn't really in charge of the invasion."
"I was thinking the same thing," Toni responded.
"And the humans, what can they do but burn?"
The scene changed to display a helicopter flying over a cliff face as the headquarters of SHIELD were shown. Over a PA system you could hear, "All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed. Hundreds of vans were making their way off the premises and the workers were rushing off site in droves.
Clint flinched. All those people, some of them he knew, how many of them had made it out?
The helicopter made its landing at the front of the building where Agent Coulson was waiting for it. Agent Hill and Nick Fury disembarked and made their way over to the waiting Agent.
"How bad is it?" Fury asked clearly concerned.
"Very," Toni muttered darkly.
"That's the problem, sir, we don't know," was Coulson's prompt response.
The scene changed again to show an elevator descending as Coulson began to explain the situation, "Dr Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."
Thor stiffened again at the mention of his friend and Clint thought this was probably because just like Clint he didn't want to see the result of one of Loki's possessions.
"NASA didn't authorise Selvig to go to test phase," Fury said accusingly.
His fellow Avengers wouldn't have thought Thor's eyes could get any darker than they were already but they were proved wrong as Fury brought up the frankly ridiculous possibility that Selvig had performed illegal tests on the Tesseract.
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room," Coulson clarified, "spontaneous event."
"It just turned itself on," Agent Hill said sceptically.
"Where are the energy levels now?" Fury asked.
"Climbing," Coulson said seriously, "when Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."
"How long to get everyone out?" Fury inquired.
Clint had been wondering that himself. It would be one way of reassuring himself that he hadn't done too much damage if the evac time was relatively short.
"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour," Coulson informed them.
"That was never going to be enough time," Natasha said coldly speaking up for the first time since they had started watching. Clint's stomach lurched. He knew Natasha probably hadn't meant it but it didn't exactly make him feel better to hear it laid out like that.
"Do better," Fury stated.
Coulson nodded before turning back to the people who were busy evacuating apparently to give direction.
"Sir, evacuation may be futile," Hill pointed out as the pair descended a staircase.
"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury asked his tone dripping with sarcasm.
"I can't believe I'm saying this but Fury does kind of have a point there," Toni admitted.
"But so does Hill unfortunately," Natasha chimed in.
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," Hill insisted.
"And there's the root of the problem," Bruce sighed, "that thing was never safe. For anyone."
"I need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out," Fury said ignoring her previous statement.
"HE'S MAKING THAT A PRIORITY," Steve shouted outraged, "THEY COULD HAVE USED THE EXTRA TIME TO GET MORE PEOPLE OUT!"
"Steve, please try not to deafen us," Toni said rolling her eyes, "I agree it's idiotic but we can't do anything about it now."
"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Hill asked.
Steve nodded in approval glad that at least one principal member of the SHIELD team seemed to have their priorities in the right order according to some sort of moral system that actually made sense.
"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone," Fury said authoritatively.
"Now you see why I really don't like him," Toni said with a scowl, "the only people worse are that Council that claims to be in charge."
"Yes, sir," Hill said although she was clearly unhappy with the decision. She walked past Fury obviously heading for the lower levels and told two soldiers, "with me."
Fury watched them go before entering the Tesseract's area and saying, "talk to me doctor."
"Director," Erik Selvig said as he stepped down from his place in front of the Tesseract.
"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked.
Toni used this opportunity to mutter several things that she knew for certain about Fury under her breath to the amusement of Bruce who was seated next to her. He agreed with her assessment although he was reluctant to agree with her vocally. He tried to avoid starting arguments as much as possible.
"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig stated plainly.
This managed to elicit an amused snort from Clint who clearly found the dry comment at least slightly funny. The others weren't similarly impressed but they were glad that Clint seemed to have cheered up at least a little as the next section of the film was bound to be hard on him.
One of the scientists touched the Tesseract with a metal rod and it immediately flared up sending a spark of blue energy flying. "Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury said disapprovingly.
"No, it's not funny at all," Selvig said as he walked forward to meet Fury, "The Tesseract is not only active, she's behaving."
"Should have just left it in the ocean," Steve said bitterly.
"I assume you pulled the plug," Fury said inadvertently showing his ignorance of the science of the situation.
"She's an energy source," Selvig pointed out, "we turn off the power she turns it back on."
"You'd think Fury would have picked up that fact by now after all these years working for SHIELD," Toni mocked as yet another detail added to how unimpressed she was by the man.
"If she reaches peak level…" Selvig continued.
But Fury interrupted his speech, "we prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."
"But we don't have the harness," Selvig said blandly, "my calculations are far from complete."
"They should never have started anything on it without a failsafe if they insisted on starting at all," Bruce pointed out matter-of-factly.
"And she's throwing off interference, radiation," Selvig continued, "nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."
"That can be harmful," Fury said.
"Over an extended period of time," Bruce said, "they weren't planning on being there long enough for there to be a long term effect. I would know."
"Where's Agent Barton?" Fury inquired crossly.
Clint was using the entirety of his spy training at this stage to conceal the fact that he was severely on edge at the thought of entering the scene. Those moments in the warehouse were the last few he could remember clearly until Natasha had brought him back.
"The Hawk?" Selvig scoffed, "up in his nest as usual."
"I still do not understand your fixation with high places Friend Barton," Thor stated in agreement with his friend. Clint simply rolled his eyes and tried not to think about what he would be witnessing soon.
Clint was shown clinging onto a railing near the roof of the room. As Fury's voice came through on his radio saying, "Agent Barton report!"
He was shown sliding down a rope to reach the ground as Fury said, "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."
"Well, I see better from a distance," Clint said dismissively.
"So that is why!" Thor said relieved that the movie had answered his question.
"Have you seen anything that might set this off?" Fury queried.
One of the physicists peered out from behind a screen saying, "Doctor, it's spiking again."
Clint continued speaking as if not having heard the interruption, "no one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs."
"You suspected him," Thor said incredulously.
"It's part of our job Thor," Natasha replied, "we have to suspect everybody but ourselves and sometimes we're not even safe on that count."
Clint turned back to the Tesseract. "If there was any tampering it wasn't at this end," he clarified.
"'At this end'" Fury said frowning.
"Yeah, the Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides," Clint pointed out.
"That's good, well done Clint," Toni said with a smile, "nobody else figured that out."
"Yeah but if I'd figured it out sooner then we might have been able to quarantine it or something," Clint sighed.
"You had no need to Clint, don't do this to yourself again," Natasha said sternly.
"Besides Fury would never have gone for that," Toni pointed out.
Selvig was typing data into a computer as he muttered, "not yet," when the screen showed the Tesseract send out another flare of blue light before it began to send out more and more of them so they became a constant stream. The scene changed to show the building shaking as Coulson steadied himself and Hill looked up upon hearing the disturbance.
The Cube continued to flare more and more ferociously as the others viewed it. The light began to turn as it formed a vortex of blue energy which after a few seconds fired a beam across the room.
The six people in the room flinched instinctively as they knew that this signified the arrival of Loki. Even those who hadn't been there personally had easily been able to figure it out.
The beam of energy began to form a portal showing the darkness of space. Eventually it fluctuated as it became unstable and exploded sending blue light sweeping across the room and hitting the people who were there. As the remainder of the light flew upwards to the ceiling a glowing blue figure was clearly visible kneeling where the portal had been.
"Loki," Clint hissed despite the fact that nobody needed to be told who it was.
The soldiers holding guns in the room began to advance slowly on the figure as he slowly looked up. He rose to his feet holding his sceptre in his right hand. Fury shouted to him in alarm, "Sir, please put down the spear."
"Can't even tell a spear from a sceptre," Toni said rolling her eyes. She was trying to bring a little comic relief but gave up when she saw it obviously wasn't working.
Loki simply stared at his weapon before raising it and firing in the direction of Fury and Clint. Clint thankfully pushed Fury out of the range of the projectile in time for it to just to hit some scientific equipment. Immediately the soldiers began firing at Loki but he simply launched himself at the first one and took him down before using his sceptre to ricochet bullets back into two more. He fired a bolt of energy at the female physicist and she collapsed to the floor.
Thor was clearly become severely unsettled as he watched his brother kill innocent people in cold blood. Yes, he had been involved in the battle against the Chitauri but Loki hadn't actually killed anyone within Thor's eye line there. He hadn't quite been able to comprehend how far Loki had fallen until that moment. He didn't even look like the brother he had known in that moment.
The fight continued with Clint and the other Agents firing on Loki but he simply let their rounds phase through him before firing energy bolts back. He kicked one man into a wall as he was nearby. Every person in the room was on the ground as sparks flew dangerously from the damaged equipment. Some of them were clearly still alive but were in much worse condition than Loki was.
Clint managed to scramble to his feet just as Loki came up to him sceptre in hand and used the other to push Clint's attacking hand to the side as he jibed, "you have heart."
Clint winced at the jibe as his ability to fight back had clearly been what had made Loki decide to take him over instead of killing him. Death would have been a better option than being Loki's overgrown puppet although he supposed then he wouldn't have eventually been able to fight back in a more successful way.
Fury looked up from his place near the cube as Loki's sceptre met Clint's jacket directly above his heart. The blue energy of the sceptre travelled up Clint's neck as his eyes flashed pitch black before they cleared to show the light blue dancing across his irises.
Clint found that watching this scene was rather like a train wreck as he didn't want to know what happened after this moment but found himself unable to look away. He felt a comforting hand placed on his arm and managed to give Natasha a brief smile but nothing else.
Clint stepped back from Loki and returned his gun to its holster. Fury who looked horrified upon seeing this reached out to grab the Tesseract from its setting and place it in his fortified briefcase.
"I'd rather have seen it with him than with Loki," Toni said suddenly, "and that's saying something because I really hate Fury almost all of the time. He does have not being a megalomaniac going for him."
The scene changed back to Loki taking over one of the officials on the scene as Fury attempted to walk out with the Tesseract. "Please don't," Loki said relatively calmly turning to face Fury, "I still need that."
"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury explained calmly.
"You mean he didn't even try and find out what Loki had done to us," Clint said his long standing faith in SHIELD faltering every minute he watched Fury's actions.
"Of course it does," Loki said matter-of-factly, "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
The scene showed Selvig turning away from his dead assistant to look at Loki the minute he mentioned Asgard.
"I guess he was thinking of you there Thor," Bruce said quietly to the demigod.
"Loki, brother of Thor," Selvig said stepping towards the scene.
Loki did not look at all pleased that someone had made this association. "We have no quarrel with your people," Fury attempted to reason as the blue energy from the portal's explosion gathered above his head.
"I seem to remember you saying something similar on the helicarrier Thor," Steve mused.
Thor simply nodded in response obviously not wishing to speak until at least this scene was over.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki said scathingly.
"Are you planning to step on us?" Fury said disbelievingly.
"I would have thought that would have been obvious by now," Toni sighed.
"I come with glad tidings of a world made free," Loki said clearly believing what he was saying.
"Free from what?" Fury said not wanting to back down.
"Freedom," Loki stated simply, "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart," he quickly turned upon saying this and used the sceptre to turn Selvig before finishing up with, "you will know peace."
"That does not make any sense," Steve said baffled.
"It did to him," Clint said bitterly, "and if you believe something that strongly you can convince yourself it's true."
"Yeah you say 'peace'," Fury said sarcastically trying not to draw attention to the energy build up but the possessed Clint had clearly already noticed it, "I kind of think you mean the other thing."
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling! This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us," Clint said in a monotone as the energy flared, "he means to bury us."
"Like the pharaohs of old," Fury said smugly.
"He's right," Selvig called out, "the portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
Clint flinched at the reminder that there wasn't going to be enough time for everyone to get off site. If he hadn't been taken over with the others Fury wouldn't have had to stall for as long as they could have come up with another strategy. He was already running several scenarios in his head about how he could have avoided it by trying to acknowledge that his hindsight was probably influencing his thoughts.
"Well, then," Loki said calmly. And with that Clint raised his gun and fired a single shot at Fury which hit its mark. With that he picked up the briefcase containing the Tesseract and walked out with Loki, Selvig and the turned Agent.
While the other Avengers didn't particularly like Fury at this point and they knew Clint probably didn't either it didn't stop them pitying him for having to watch himself injure the Director even if it was under mind control.
A/n: So far it's going to be a chapter per scene in the movie but I may change my mind later.