Ash felt the hard, cold floor of the hangar under her cheek as the real world came back to her. She opened her eyes and was able to make out Loki and his minions heading towards the doors that would lead them outside- at least that was her reasoning. She stayed motionless for fear of that bastard turning back around and shooting her again with a blast of energy from his spear. The floor shook as the doors closed shut behind the men.

The Tesseract was gone, but the storm it had left was nowhere near finished. She didn't have much time. She tilted her head to the side upon hearing an injured Director Fury's voice. She saw the guy attempting to pull the bullet that Barton had shot him with from a wound in his side. She did not feel weak as she had expected- Loki's blast had seemed to only rejuvenate her after the initial shock of someone trying to take her life.

She sprang up and ran to the director, slipping into triage mode and assessing the situation. He was strong and he would be fine even if she did not treat him, but a look of relief seemed to pass his angry features as she went to work on the wound. He pulled out a walkie talkie and radioed into someone called Hill. "Barton's been compromised, do you read? Don't let Barton get away!"

Gunshots were heard over the radio seconds later and Ash cringed. Please no more casualties…

"Sir he's gotten away. I am in pursuit do you read?"

"Very good," Fury said in a commanding tone. Ash got him stabilized and he got up on his own. "We need to move," he said to Ashley. "That guy is not getting away this easily."

Ash nodded. "Um… Is there any chance of saving anyone-"

"There's no time. We need to get you out of here, Doctor," Fury said quickly. "After that little stunt you pulled you may just be the only person that can stop the Tesseract all together." Fury radioed in to Coulson. "Coulson, pick up. Do you read?"

Ash was able to detect Coulson's slightly more agitated voice. He was clearly helping with a full scale evacuation. "I'm here, Sir."

"I have Doctor Wilson with me. I am about to head out in pursuit of hostile forces. Over."

"Yes sir. I will meet you on the helicopter pad. We have a bird ready to go with evacuees. We can get her out that way."

Ashley couldn't help but wonder why they were taking such good care of her. Fury had started walking as he had spoken with Coulson, indicating for Ash to follow him. She found herself jogging to keep up and constantly trying to steady her feet as the ground shook. She could tell the Tesseract was getting further and further away. The waves it was emitting were not nearly as strong.

"Follow those doors," Fury said as he indicated a set of double doors down the hallway. Coulson will be waiting for you." Ash's eyes nearly popped out of her head to see the Director yank a gun from under his coat and load it.

Ash nodded as the Director took off in the opposite direction. She inhaled once before another explosion sent her running down the hall.

"Just leave it!" Coulson said to his subordinates as a large blast shook the building. "We need to get out of here." The boxes that the agents had been trying to transport toppled down the steps and Coulson had to fight to keep his balance as well. He latched onto an agent that almost fell down the steps and jerked him towards the exit. Fury had said that Wilson would be here. If she didn't show up soon, though, he was contemplating leaving without her.

He stood on the helicopter pad, waiting.

"Sir, the place is coming down!" he heard one of the young scientists yell to him over the roar of the chopper. "There's no telling if she's even still alive!"

Coulson turned to him. "I have orders from Director Fury. We wait."

A blast shook the levels of the building the helicopter was positioned on. Overhead, the helicopter that Director Fury was supposed to use passed over them. Coulson could define car lights travelling towards the interstate. A figure was in the back of the truck, a glowing stick in his hand. The helicopter hovered over the truck in hot pursuit. Fury needed assistance…

"Alright," Coulson said after a moment of deliberation. "Let's move out." The helicopter pilot nodded as Coulson lugged himself into the helicopter. It started to hover as the blades spun faster and faster.

Just then, the doors to the upper levels burst open and Doctor Wilson came sprinting for the helicopter. "Wait!" she screamed frantically, waving her arms as she sprinted towards the hovering aircraft. She latched onto the landing bars directly beneath Coulson's feet, eyes wide and… glowing?

Coulson did a double take. Sure enough her eyes were glowing the same blue of the Tesseract. Fury hadn't mentioned that…

Snapping out of it, he reached down to grab the girl's wrist. She was obviously not accustomed to field work at all. The helicopter swayed a bit at the added weight on one side, veering off course. "Wilson you are gonna have to help me out here," Coulson yelled down to her. "Prop your leg on the bar and use it to pull yourself up."

The young doctor did so. The helicopter was now twenty feet in the air and Coulson could see the foundation of the research base throbbing with each blast of gamma that occurred. It wouldn't be long before it collapsed completely…

Ashley landed in the passenger compartment, splayed out at Coulson's feet. As her breathing slowed, her eyes stopped glowing.

With the woman safely in the chopper, Coulson turned his attention back to Fury's helicopter. He could make out gunfire being directed at the truck. Fury was going to get them.

All positive thoughts shut down as a blast of gamma was ejected from the glowing orb at the end of the figure in the back's spear… and collided straight into the chopper. The energy took the tail off of the helicopter, sending it in a downward spiral. It crashed in flames on the desert as the truck made it to the main road. Coulson let out an irritated huff.

"Director Fury, do you read me?" Coulson said solemnly.

There was a brief silence on the other end that nearly made the seasoned SHIELD agent stop breathing. And then Fury's deep voice blared through the radio. "The Tesseract is now in enemy hands. Hill? I need a damage report."

The voice of Maria Hill reached Coulson's ears. That made him a bit more relieved as well. After the female agent gave her report Fury spoke up again. "Listen up. The Tesseract has fallen into enemy hands. As of right now. We are at war."

Coulson resisted the urge to stamp his foot in irritation. He just didn't do that. "What do we do now, Sir?"

"We get ready," Fury's voice rang through the walkie-talkie.

Ashley sat with her arms crossed back at SHIELD headquarters in the city. A cup of untouched coffee sat before her on the table and she watched as the rest of SHIELD swarmed around the room. Agents came and went with file folders, passing them off to Coulson and then leaving as quickly as they had come. Ash closed her eyes.

She was waiting on a few tests to come back that SIHELD had done, but she knew they wouldn't find anything. When her powers had become prominent in her childhood, her father had taken her to specialists and gene therapy sessions. Nothing had worked and she soon learned to harness her powers and control them for her own good. Quite frankly she had no idea how she had gotten this way. All she knew was that one day she had been normal and the next she had woken up with a static current clinging to her body. When she had touched her lamp on her bedside table she had blown the bulb straight out of the socket.

As she grew older she had worked with her abilities, reigning them into where she could use them more as a detection method. That was what had made her so talented in the medical arena. Electricity was life.

She opened her eyes as Coulson spoke, thinking he was speaking to her. Instead she saw him talking into a cell phone. She only caught the tail end of his sentence… "Put the woman on the phone or I will blow it sky high before you can reach the lobby."

Ash's eyes went wide yet again. So you didn't mess with SHIELD. At all, apparently. "Natasha." Who the hell was Natasha? "Natasha," he said again. Whoever Natasha was sure knew how to talk because Coulson waited another few seconds before talking over her. He looked over his shoulder at Ash carefully before turning back and muttering something into the phone. It sounded like he was talking about Barton- the dude that Loki had gotten to.

After that, both lines went quiet. Ash was about to leave the room when Coulson motioned to her to stay seated. She sat down with a little sigh, propping her head in her hands and waiting.

"What are you waiting for then?" "The right partner." "Steve?" "I gotta put her in the water!"

Steve Rogers pounded each thought into the large punching bag, driving out all of his anger, frustration, confusion, anything emotional that he didn't want to feel. He had been asleep for seventy years. During that time everything had changed. Everything had gotten so… complicated. Most of all, Peggy Carter's voice haunted him, that and the look on his friend Bucky's face when the poor guy had fallen to his death from HYDRA's train. He should have saved him. He could have saved him… The train had just been so damn high!

He beat harder into the bag. Fallen buddies, Peggy, even the scientist that had died at the hands of that HYDRA agent's gun right in front of him…. all those faces that he would never see again. Even with all the superhuman strength in the world, he was still weak.

With that last thought, he plowed into the bag even harder, breaking the hinges and sending it far across the room as if trying to prove himself wrong.

"Trouble sleeping?" Director Nick Fury's voice reached him as he picked up yet another bag and attached it to its predecessor's place on the hinges suspended from the ceiling.

He let out a breath as he undid the tape on his hands, walking towards a trashcan as he spoke. "I slept for seventy years, Sir, I think I'm good for now."

He turned back around to face Fury. The man had a file folder in his hand and he handed it out for Steve to take. The soldier wiped his sweaty face on the hem of his shirt as he threw the last of the tape away and grabbed the file. "Trying to get me back in the world again?"

Nick fury gave a sort of smile that didn't indicate any humor. "Trying to save it."

Steve crinkled his brow as he opened the manila file. Six photographs of people looked back at him. One name in particular caught his eye. Stark? He slipped it out of the folder and examined it. Tony Stark… "Is this…"

"Howard's son? Yeah. He's made a name for himself in the energy arena recently. Says he's using something called an arc reactor to provide clean power."

Steve knew he was looking at the director like he had three heads. "And the rest of these people?"

"Well, that's one of the reasons I'm here to talk to you."

Steve's gaze looked over the package. "Who's this?" he asked as he indicated to a picture of a pale man with dark hair. The picture looked like a shot from battle, very different from the other headshots." There was a lot more in the file by way of information.

"His name's Loki. He's… not from around here," Fury said with that same half amused, half not amused tone in his voice. "He broke into SHIELD and stole this. I'm sure you are familiar with it."

Steve looked over at a picture that was clipped to the top of the opposite page. He hadn't seen that thing in so long… How did people now a days get such realistic pictures anyways? "Yeah. I'm familiar with it," he said as he tossed the file back to Fury.

"Got any idea why Loki'd be interest in it?" Fury asked as he followed Steve back to the row of punching bags that lined the floor.

"Nope," he said as he hoisted another bag over his shoulder nad grabbed his gym bag while walking towards the door.

"So what should we do then?" Fury said. He seemed to be drilling Steve for an answer. He got one.

"You shoulda left it at the bottom of the ocean."

Coulson got off of the phone a few minutes later. Ash sat up when he was off of it, waiting expectantly. "Director Fury wants me to give you this," he said as he slid a file over to her. "Think it over. You have twelve hours to repond."

Ash brought her hand down on the file as it made it to her, stopping it. She opened it and her eyes went wide. She looked up at Coulson and nodded, but the agent had already left.

Looking back at her was a picture of the very thing that alien dude had stolen among something called "The Avenger Initiative." And Dear God! Was that… Tony Stark? The Tony Stark? She felt her jaw drop.

There was a woman called Natasha with short, bright red hair; The Tony Stark; a man by the name of Steve Rogers; and… was that a rock? If rocks were radiation green and had facial features she was certain that this… thing… could pass for one.

She looked over at the Tesseract-thingie. That cube had given her the highest fix than anything she had ever felt…. If that deranged psycho with the glowing staff had it… there was no telling what would become of it.

She decided it would be best to play along with SHIELD- or whoever they were- for now. Her patients would be taken care of at the hospital, her job? Well, not so much. She was probably already fired after disappearing the way she had. Again, a building full of type A personalities took little to no crap- no matter how good you were.

Besides, this was her shot at figuring out just what made her the way she was. Something in her gut told her the Tesseract would have the answers she was looking for. It was just a matter of getting it.

Yes? no? How are YOU liking this? Review? :)

Next chapter will feature a bit of Loki... just tossing that out there.

Thanks!

~Sirius