Happy Saturday to all my Readers! Today is a good day, I've got a week off work and I'll be going on Camp, so I thought I'd update but you lot are lucky, you're getting two chapters instead of one today as the original chapter is so huge!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters that may be used or any Marvel storylines or arcs.
Claimer: I only own the character Elizabeth Jones (Lowri Jones and any other names she uses) and her story, past, present and future.
Recap
Lowri felt so bad for not being there as he transitions from one century to the next, she really should be there for him.
She was stood in her DC office, a large stack of papers standing in front of her on her desk and hundreds of emails on her laptop, waiting for her attention but all she wanted to do was fly straight back to New York and see Steve again.
"Are you settled now, Steve?" Lowri asked carefully. She didn't want her voice to give away her feelings.
"Yeah. Until I can find a place for myself in New York, I've been put into one of the rooms in the building, in, uh, S. H. I. E. L. D." Steve said, he sometimes found it awkward to talk about the organisation. "Food's not that bad. Tastes a lot better."
"I'm guessing that you're allowed out and about the city?" Lowri asked with a small laugh.
"Not exactly, I have two agents tailing me wherever I go outside the building." Steve replied.
"Next time you're out, you've gotta try this pizza place just around the corner from the agency." Lowri said quickly, "The pizza is the best I've ever had, it takes me back."
"I'll try it next time." Steve promised.
Lowri really wanted to promise to come back to New York ASAPP but she couldn't bring herself to say the words. Her work was so busy and demanding, Steve was pushed to the back of her mind.
Another few weeks dragged on and the workload mounted up but Lowri was already working on the transfer reports to transfer leadership roles of different projects to different people, just to ease her workload.
Finally, Lowri decided to take a break from it all and headed to the Mojave Desert to check up on the progress of Project P. E. G. A. S. U. S. and on the agent leading the project, Clint Barton.
Project P. E. G. A. S. U. S. held great interest for her since it was all about monitoring the Tesseract, the weapon which Johann Schmidt had harnessed during the war to make those terrible weapons, which were in storage on the base in the Mojave Desert. But she was also very against it.
Doctor Selvig, the lead scientist was brought in for his own protection and because this field is his speciality. He was very interested in getting to know the Tesseract and he had summoned Lowri to the base in the early days of the project so she could give her statement on the Tesseract.
She had never seen it before they found it lying in the ocean when they first began searching for Steve in late 1945. But she had known the effects of the Tesseract well.
When they had infiltrated the final Hydra base deep under the Alps, she had been shot when she ran with the army with one of Hydra's weapons, developed using the Tesseract's energy. Instead of disintegrating on the spot like every other victim she saw, she received a horrible burn and she still holds the scar today which is unusual, all scars disappear by a few weeks, but this scar was almost seventy years old.
After the SSR and the army had infiltrated and destroyed the Hydra army, they took over the base and sent all of the Hydra weapons back to London to be tested on by Howard. They came into S. H. I. E. L. D.'s hands when the organisation was formed
Doctor Selvig was extremely interested in the history and he clapped his hands in glee when Lowri gave the order for those weapons to be delivered for the project just so Doctor Selvig could understand the Tesseract a little better.
During her brief visit to the base in the Mojave Desert, her attention was brought to the Tesseract because it had recently began giving off strangely high energy levels.
Clint stayed up in his nest, observing the area from afar, as he does best but Lowri stood close to the Tesseract, watching it spike and drop then spike again.
"I don't like it." Lowri said, she turned to Doctor Selvig and saw that he was frantically trying to calm the Tesseract down. "There's no way to shut her down, is it?"
"None that seems to be working." Doctor Selvig answered. This had been going on for four hours and Lowri was on edge.
"I'm calling evac." Lowri said, she reached up and turn on her comms. "Barton, announce evac. I want this place empty just in case this thing blows."
"Aye, aye." Clint agreed, he announced the evac and slowly, the agents agreed. Twenty minutes later, while agents began working hard on the evac, Phil arrived.
He wanted to know what was going on and once Lowri had told him, he agreed with the evac and called Nick in. He went up to wait for him and Lowri stayed in the underground cavern where the Tesseract is housed.
"Barton, is she looking any different than last time?" Lowri asked over comms, she glanced up at the far away corner where Clint was sitting calmly.
"Not any different. You should pop up here more often. You've only been up here once. It's a great view." Clint replied, Lowri rolled her eyes at him and smiled, knowing what was coming next. "Hey, don't roll your eyes at me, Misfire."
Clint has this insane gift; his eyesight is literally perfect and he can see from far away, which is why he prefers to be up in his nest. During his training, he had perfect scores on his weapons. He preferred using a bow and arrow as his weapon instead of a gun and Lowri liked that edge.
"Oh, come on. You enjoy the solitude in your little nest. I wouldn't wanna ruin it." Lowri replied. She picked up her cup of tea and took a long drink.
"You're too British for us Americans." Clint said, he was probably smirking.
She laughed and set her tea back down on the table beside her. "I do hope you realise that if two British women hadn't helped the Americans then you wouldn't have this cosy job." Lowri replied, "So you can thank me for your job."
"And this is where your age shows." Clint joked, "Do you need any help stirring your tea, Granny?"
"Oh, Granny is borderline abuse." She laughed.
"Agent Jones, Agent Barton." Came a serious tone, Lowri feared for a second that the tone belonged to Nick, but then she realised that it was just Phil. "Sorry to interrupt your comical exchange but Director Fury is arriving by chopper in under five minutes, meet me on top in two minutes, Agent Jones."
Lowri pulled a face in the general direction of Clint and replied to Phil, "Alright, I'll see you up there." Lowri said, she headed into the midst of the chaos of the evac and searched for Doctor Selvig. Once she located him, she headed over. "Doctor Selvig." She called, she dodged a female scientist and the man in question looked up. "I'm going up top to meet Director Fury, I'll be back soon with him. Hopefully, we can get this thing under control then, or something along those lines."
Doctor Selvig merely waved his hand at her before returning to his work, Lowri guessed that today was a bit busy for everyone so she turned from him and headed for the exit. She wove her way through the scientists that were helping to pack everything away and she headed up the stairs, taking two at a time.
She reached the top and dodged the agents carrying out her evacuation order. Finally, she reached the ground level and only had to get to the roof. She brushed back her hair as she took the final set of stairs two at a time and she tugged down the sleeves of her jacket.
Lowri pushed open the doors leading to the roof and spied Phil standing just off from the helicopter landing pad. She stopped beside him and shared a look as she straightened her jacket.
"Judging from your conversation with Agent Barton, I assume that there's no change?" Phil asked, he raised an eyebrow at her and smiled when she smiled at him.
"Still the same." Lowri replied, she looked away and dropped her hands beside her. "I still think the Tesseract should have been locked away when we pulled it out of the ocean. It was bad enough that Howard had to have a go at testing it."
Phil turned his head to her, "You know, you're such a refreshing woman that sometimes I forget." Phil said honestly.
"Forget what?" Lowri asked, glancing at him.
"That you've lived for so long." Phil replied, smiling.
"Oh, you forget that I'm fast-approaching my 200th birthday?" Lowri asked, she smiled and looked away. "So, what are you getting me for my big birthday? It's not common for someone to reach their second century. You better go big or go home."
Before Phil could even open his mouth to answer, the chopper appeared and hovered in mid-air for five seconds before beginning its descent.
The door opened as soon as the chopper landed and Agent Maria Hill stepped down with a serious look on her face and behind her, was Nick. Nick immediately made a beeline for Lowri and Phil.
"How bad is it?" Nick asked immediately, his voice was almost drowned out by the roar of the propellers of the chopper and engine.
"That's the problem, sir." Phil began, he glanced at Lowri, unsure of how to continue before he looked back at Nick, "We don't know."
Nick looked at both of them seriously and then Lowri turned on her heel and led them into the base. She jogged down the stairs with the three of them following.
"Have you ever seen the Tesseract behave like this, Ri?" Nick asked as they jogged down the stairs.
They reached the main level and began heading for the stairs that would lead them down to the underground cavern housing the Tesseract.
"Never." Lowri said, she strode ahead of them, clearing a path for them. "I've seen it used as a weapon, as an energy source and now as an object to be tested on." Lowri said, she glanced behind and shot him a warning look. "You know how I felt about this project going ahead."
There was a brief moment of silence as she turned her head to look forward but then Phil spoke up.
"Doctor Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago." Phil offered as they turned off from the main corridor.
"NASA didn't authorise Selvig to go to the testing phase? Did he push forward for that?" Fury asked, Phil shook his head and glanced at Lowri.
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. It was a spontaneous event." Phil answered quickly.
"It just turned itself on?" Maria asked sharply Lowri could hear the scepticism in her voice and she could understand it completely. The Tesseract is an impressive piece of work that is hard to work with and understand.
"Where are the energy levels at now?" Nick asked, his eye followed a pair of agents rushing past them, carrying a large box between them.
"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut the Tesseract down, Agent Jones ordered the evac." Phil said quietly.
"If the Tesseract spikes again and it gets higher, the base could be destroyed and that's the last thing I want." Lowri added. "It's better to be safe than sorry."
"How long will it be until everyone is out?" Nick asked, he glanced at Phil.
"Campus should be clear in the next half an hour." Phil replied.
"Do better." Nick ordered. Phil nodded his head and jogged off to lead the evacuation effort while Lowri, Maria and Nick headed down deeper into the base.
"Sir," Maria began as they headed down the first set of stairs leading down to the underground cavern. "The evacuation may be futile," Maria shot a quick look at Lowri and looked apologetic. "It's not against your judgment, Agent Jones, but if this proves to be a one-off, then we moved everything and everyone out for no reason. But, there's also the case that there might not be a safe distance."
Lowri shrugged her shoulders to show that she didn't care. Over the past few years, several directors and their second in command have tried to etch Lowri out of the organisation all together but of course, Lowri is stubborn and she physically can't die, she's the best for the job.
"I'm not risking any human life on a single chance of no safe distance." Lowri replied. "And if anyone present is unhappy with my decision, then I am more than happy to ignore their protests."
Lowri gets along with Maria Hill well enough, but sometimes their personalities and opinions clashes and causes rifts.
They reached the final set of stairs and Lowri headed down, she glanced back when she spied Nick and Maria paused at the top. Nick gestured that he'll catch up with her and Lowri headed back down the steps, ignoring the questioning feeling in her stomach.
She needed to keep her mind focused on the evac and the Tesseract.
As she reached the bottom, she paused and waited for Nick as he reached the halfway mark.
Nick caught up with her quickly and they fell into step together.
"I know you've never agreed to this project but–" Nick began but Lowri turned from him and began heading towards the cavern. "You're angry."
Lowri didn't need to look at him to see that he had a 'not again' look on his face. They've worked together for a good few years and he knows her well.
"It was one thing that Howard began messing around with the Tesseract when we first found it, but even he knew his limits and he put it in storage for good reason." Lowri said, "Now, this is getting ridiculous, all these tests have been run on it and we still don't know or understand how she works."
"Don't burn me." Nick joked, he held his hands up in surrender. Lowri shot a warning look at Nick and he clamped his mouth shut.
They came out into the cavern and Lowri immediately moved back to the table where she left her tea. Nick headed over to Doctor Selvig.
"Talk to me, Doctor." Nick commanded, using long strides to reach the Doctor, who was bending down in front of the Tesseract to inspect it.
Lowri reached her cup of tea and heated her hands up the moment she felt the cold mug. She sipped at the tea as it warmed up quickly, she watched Doctor Selvig and Nick speak in low tones for a few seconds before she heard Nick ask for Clint to come down.
Clint left his nest quickly and within seconds, he was beside Nick telling him everything he's seen while up there.
All of a sudden, the entire cavern shook violently and the roof began crumbling down, the remaining tea in her cup sloshed against the sides and spilled.
Lowri felt panic take hold as the room slowly stopped shaking. As she straightened up, her eyes scanned the room for any obvious damage and immediately, she caught onto the Tesseract. The erratic behaviour it had displayed earlier that day was thrown out of the window with no regard at all. The Tesseract began glowing brighter than ever before and a long blue, slightly familiar, beam shot from the centre of the Tesseract and aimed at the platform just behind the Tesseract, a few feet away.
She ran for Nick, he was stood watching the events happening before him with a scared look. If Lowri could reach him, she could protect him.
Lowri stopped beside him and they shared a look before looking at the long blue beam with terror written in their eyes.
The blue beam seemed to be creating a large circle with blue on the edges and black in the centre. As it grew and grew, Lowri realised that they were looking into outer space. Her stomach plummeted as she realised this was a portal for something from somewhere completely unfamiliar.
The blue beam suddenly cut off and the blue seemed to melt away, but it suddenly gathered together and blew outwards, it didn't seem harmful as it passed by them but it was utterly confusing.
Everyone's eyes locked on the creature appearing to be kneeling on the platform dressed in green and holding a large shiny stick with a shining blue light at the top, the blue was the same colour as the Tesseract, it was as though the shiny stick held a piece of the Tesseract.
Silence fell around them as the creature slowly stood and Lowri realised it wasn't a creature, but a man with long black hair and a sadistic smile on his pale face.
Lowri felt her stomach twist comfortably when she saw how his eyes searched the room eagerly, almost as if he was searching for his next prey.
And there you have it, the first chapter for the day! The next chapter will be up soon.
Thanks all for reading, I hope yo hear off some of you.
Read, Review, Follow & Favourite!