Chapter 3
I do not own The Avengers in any way.
A/N-2 chapters, 1 Fav, 17 Follows, and 4 Reviews. I love you people.
Banner and Madison were in the lab when Loki was brought in.
He smirked as he walked past the two.
Banner took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"Agent Barton, report to the control room and bring Banner with you", Director Fury said over her ear piece.
"C'mon Doc, we're needed in the control room, plus you look like you could need a break", she told him.
The two went to the control room.
She saw Steve and smiled. She sat down next to him. "That didn't take long. What happened? Did you shock him in into compliance with your adorableness?" Madison asked him.
Steve blushed as Natasha brought up a video.
"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass, it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury asked him, "Ant…boot".
Loki chuckled and said, "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me".
"Built for something a lot stronger than you", Fury told him.
"Oh, I've heard", Loki said, turning to face 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?"
"How desperate am I?" Fury asked him, "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".
"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close", Loki taunted, "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".
"Well let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something", Fury quipped walking out of the room.
The screen on the table disappeared.
"Psycho", Madison said under breath.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Steve smile.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner asked.
"Loki's gonna drag this out", Steve said like the military man he was, "So, Thor, what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri", Thor said, "They're not of Asgard, nor 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", Steve said.
"Right up your alley, big boy", Madison said to Steve.
"I never battled an army from outer space", he said.
"Yeah, well Red Skull might as well have been from outer space", she told him.
He just looked at her.
"What? I read your file", she said, an adorable blush covering her cheeks, neck, and ears.
"So…he's building another portal", Banner said after the two were finished, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for".
"Selvig?" Thor asked.
"He's an astrophysicist", Banner said.
"He's a friend", Thor told him.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours", Natasha said looking at Madison.
Steve reached over and took Madison's hand in his own gloved covered one.
"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here", Steve said.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki", Banner said, "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him".
Madison smiled.
"Have care how you speak", Thor said, "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother".
"He killed 80 people in two days", Natasha told him.
"He's adopted", Thor said, as if that explained everything, which sent Madison into a fit of giggles.
"I think it's about the mechanics", Banner said, ignoring the teenager, "Iridium…What do they need iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent", Stark said walking into the room with Coulson, "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.E.I.L.D.".
"Agent Barton", Coulson said, "Control yourself".
She stopped laughing and said, "Sorry, sir".
"No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing", Stark said hitting Thor on the arm, "Also, it mean the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants". Stark walked up the screens. "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails", Stark said. The agents simply looked at him. "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did", Stark said. He covered one eye and looked around. "How does Fury even see these?" he asked.
"He turns", Agent Hill said.
"Sounds exhausting", Stark quipped, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily".
When her father's name was mentioned, Madison's hand tightened on Steve's.
He ran his thumb across the back of her hand to comfort her.
She turned to him and gave him a small smile.
"The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick start the Cube", Stark said.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked.
"Cause he's a bloody genius", Madison said.
"Thank you sweetheart", Stark said, "But no. 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?" Steve asked, getting irritated.
"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier", Banner said.
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect", Stark said.
"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet", Banner said.
"Finally, someone who speaks English", Stark said.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked.
"I don't think so. I think it was geek. I don't speak geek", Madison said.
Stark and Banner simply glared at her.