Hi, guys! It's official! I'm graduated! I'll be off to college in two months, but for now, I'm free! Anyways! I hope you enjoy chapter eight!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Chapter Eight
I spent the rest of the short flight being stared down by Rogers and Stark. They never took their eyes off of me, but Thor glanced between me and the floor. Every time I sensed his eyes on me, I looked to him, but he quickly cast his gaze downwards.
Another Midgardian flying vehicle, that looked to be a sort of aircraft carrier, glided into view. The jet we were aboard was dwarfed by its size. Romanoff clicked a few switches in the cockpit as we descended until we touched down onto the surface of the larger ship. She guided us towards an open garage and stopped us there. The heavy door closed behind us, and armed soldiers instantly sprang from the doors of the room. The ramp was lowered, and the soldiers marched up. Stark and Rogers backed away a few steps and allowed them to surround me. I stood and went with them as they guided me out of the jet. They formed a box around me as we journeyed down the halls of the ship.
It was more elaborate than I thought it would be. It had multiple labs and armouries filled with their weapons. But when we passed one of their labs, I looked through the soldiers surrounding me and instantly spotted the only person inside.
Bruce Banner. He was exactly where Barton said he would be. I smirked at him as we passed, and he removed his spectacles to look at me before shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose.
The soldiers led me down a few more halls and into a dark, round room with a clear, glass cage suspended in the center. They opened the large door, removed my shackles and shoved me inside. The thick, glass door slid closed with a hiss as the cell pressurised, and they left me alone.
Fury walked in as the soldiers left and went up to a control panel without a single glance at me. "In case it's unclear," he finally voiced, "if you try to escape," he lifted a covering off of the control panel and pressed a few buttons on it, "if you so much as scratch that glass…"
Fury tapped a final command into the panel, and the whistle of wind rushed through the speakers inside the cage that allowed me to hear him. I approached the glass of the cage and glanced down at the open floor, confirming what I already knew.
"It's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury wondered harshly, closing the floor back up. "Ant." He gestured to me. "Boot." He indicated the panel.
I chuckled at his cleverness to return my words to me. I backed up into the center of the circular, glass room. "It's an impressive cage," I praised. "Not built, I think, for me."
"Built for something a lot stronger than you," he confirmed.
"Oh, I've heard." I glanced towards the black ball of the camera hanging near the wall of the cage where Banner and the others were almost surely watching me from. "A mindless beast makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" I questioned, looking back to the Director.
"How desperate am I?" he repeated, marching closer to the cage. "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," I whispered. His idle threats were so ignorant. He knew nothing of what was really happening. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power-unlimited power-and for what?" I couldn't help but laugh slightly. "A warm light for all of mankind to share?" If he knew what true power was as I did-if any of the humans did-he would never share it. "And then to be reminded what real power is."
Fury stood, stone-faced, for a moment before scoffing silently and turning his back to me. "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," he mocked as he exited.
I looked back up to the camera and waited. When would I get the Scepter back? They would take a while to study it. They had to be around the Scepter long enough for it to influence them, to get them riled up, and who knows how long that would take. It could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days, but it would happen sooner or later.
Being away from the Scepter this long had made me more anxious than I thought it would be. I had never been away from it this long. My long-injured side was already starting to throb again. I had to pace the length of the circular cell just to keep my mind off of it, though it wasn't exactly working.
"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract. But it's going to take weeks to process," an unfamiliar voice muttered, making me freeze.
I looked around the room but no one was there.
"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster, we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops," another voice whispered. It sounded like Stark, but still no one was in the room the cell was in.
The first voice chuckled. "And all I packed is a toothbrush."
I concentrated on the voices and found that they weren't coming from the room at all. They were coming from inside me, from the back of my mind.
I wandered to the bench in the cell and lowered myself onto it. I let my heavy eyes close and concentrated on the whispering voices. The familiar, numbing power of the Scepter washed over me and dulled the ache in my side.
"You know, you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top ten floors, all R and D. You'd love it. It's CandyLand."
Stark was talking to another scientist. It must be Banner.
"Thanks but, last time I was in New York, I kind of broke Harlem," Banner refused.
"Well, I promise a stress-free environment," Stark assured. "No tension. No surprises."
Banner gave off a sudden shout that made me jump. A sharp pain came from my side and radiated throughout the rest of me. It hadn't hurt this badly since I was coughing up blood after I broke my rib initially.
"Stark Tower?" a third voice came as the pain died down. Rogers. "That big ugly...building in New York?"
"It's powered by an Arc Reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Banner asked.
That Arc Reactor could hold the answer to the energy problem of the Tesseract. It could hold enough power in it to open the gateway wide enough to let the Chitauri come through and take what they wanted, allowing me to find the rest of the Infinity Stones, finally keep the Scepter without threat.
The more I thought about how much I needed it, the more my heart raced, my side throbbing with each pulsing heartbeat.
The Scepter would end the pain, but I was away from it now. However, for some reason, I felt like I was slowly waking up. But how could I be waking up if I was never asleep?
"I think Loki's tryin' to wind us up," Rogers argued. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed."
Despite his ridiculous attire, Rogers was smarter than he looked.
"Of the people in this room, which one of us is A: wearing a spangly outfit, and B: not of use?" Stark questioned.
"Steve," Banner called, "tell me none of this smells funky to you."
The Scepter was already taking effect. They were arguing. It wouldn't be long now. I would have the Scepter back into my grasp soon, but I couldn't wait any longer.
"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," Stark muttered. "This stops it. This little circle of light, it's part of me now. Not just armour."
The circle of light in the center of his chest stopped shrapnel? That might be useful. If I needed an emergency defense against him, I could rip it out, possibly damaging his heart and suit functions enough to kill him.
The Scepter's power washed over me enough to make me nearly fall asleep, but I gladly fell into it. The sharp pain from my side diminished as I did, and the Scepter showed me an image of the compacted iridium being inserted into another portal making device.
"They're almost ready," the Scepter whispered, soothing my anxiety.
The Scepter's power faded, renewing my nervousness and the pain in my side. I strained to keep it out of my expression and stood from the bench. I slowly resumed pacing the cell to distract myself.
After a moment I suddenly felt eyes on me, and I froze. Romanoff. It must be. "There's not many people who can sneak up on me," I said, turning around to find the black-suited woman standing on the other side of the glass.
"But you figured I'd come," she added.
"After," I answered. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend. As a balm. And I would cooperate."
It was a standard negotiation tactic. You induce either torture or indefinitely long solitary confinement intended to get the victim to break, but if they don't, then the friend would come and convince you to trust them enough to get the information out of you.
"I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton," Natasha quietly demanded.
"I would say I've expanded his mind," I answered, thinking of what the Scepter has done for me.
Romanoff tilted her head to the side before taking slow steps forward. "And once you've won, once you're king of the mountain," she stopped feet from the glass and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "what happens to his mind?"
"Oh. Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" I wondered, remembering how Barton stared at her image. She had the same look in her eye as she thought of him, though her expression was guarded.
"Love is for children," she denied. "I owe him a debt."
I backed away from the glass, making it seem like I was yielding to her. "Tell me," I requested, taking a seat on the bench again.
She tensed for a moment and licked her lips before sighing. "Before I worked for SHIELD, I uh…" She trailed off as she lowered herself into the chair that rested outside of the glass. "Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used for or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way." Her eyes fixed on something only she could see. "Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call." She looked back up to me.
I nodded along with her words, pretending to understand. "And what will you do if I vow to spare him?" I asked.
"Not let you out," she said with a smirk.
"No, but I like this," I laughed, leaning forward. Human and Asgardian emotions were so intricate. They could make the strongest person fall and allow the weakest person to destroy a city. "Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"
"Regimes fall every day," she countered. "I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian. Or I was."
Loss of what you once were. It can make a person entirely different. "And what are you now?"
"It's really not that complicated," she sighed, rising from her chair, approaching the glass and crossing her arms again. "I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out."
Barton showed me her record. The Black Widow had so much more than red in her history. "Can you?" I wondered. "Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter, Sao Paulo, the hospital fire?" As I listed one incident after another, Agent Romanoff tensed more and more, her eyes gradually widening. "Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping." I got up from the bench and paced closer to the glass. It was my turn for the upper hand. "It's gushing red, and you think saving a man is no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest of sentimentality. This is a child at prayer." Natasha's mouth parted, and her breathing quickened, emboldening me all the more. "Pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away."
One final push would get her to leave, to go back to the Scepter and speed up my getting out of here. She was already on the verge of running.
I took my fist and slammed it onto the glass, making Romanoff nearly jump out of her skin. "I won't touch Barton," I threatened. "Not until I make him kill you. Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull." Natasha blinked rapidly and backed away from the glass, turning away from me. "This is my bargain, you mewling girl."
Her breathing grew audibly shaky, and she sniffled for a moment. "You're a monster," she whimpered.
"Oh, no," I laughed. "You've brought the monster."
Natasha lifted her head and turned around, her expression blank as could be. "So. Banner," she said. "That's your play."
"What?" I breathed.
Romanoff put a hand to her ear and spad away. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk," she muttered as she left. "Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." She stopped at the door and turned back to me. "Thank you for your cooperation." She smirked arrogantly before turning her back to me and walking out.
She had tricked me. Her "specific skill set". Barton told me that she was a skilled interrogator, but based on her other activities, I had naturally assumed that he meant that she interrogated with torture.
I couldn't help but laugh a little. She was impressive.
It didn't matter, though. Once the Scepter did its work, they would be powerless to stop the Hulk from ripping this place apart, and Barton and his team would be here to get me out of here before the chaos began. This part of SHIELD would still fall along with their Avengers Initiative.
I lowered myself onto the bench again and let my eyes fall closed, reaching for the Scepter again.
"Listen, I'm not leaving just because you get a little twitchy," Banner's voice came, defiance and questions in his tone. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
There was silence for a moment before Director Fury's voice came. "Because of him."
"Me?" another voice wondered, easily recognisable as Thor's.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury explained.
They were studying the Tesseract because of Thor? Odin was wrong. I wasn't the only one who could make mistakes.
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor countered.
Furry challenged, "But you're not the only people out there, are you?"
This was taking too long. At this rate, I might get the Scepter back by sundown. I was clearly out of sorts without it. It was the only explanation as to how Romanoff was able to worm information out of me.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor voiced. "It is a signal to all realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war." At least Thor wasn't entirely oblivious.
"A nuclear deterrent. Cause that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury said.
Things were getting a move on at least.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor spat.
"Excuse me. Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury challenged.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust."
Their words came faster and faster until they overlapped in a loud argument that eventually faded to lowered voices and whispered threats. It wouldn't be long now. The Hulk would come out and tear this place apart. Barton and his team would be waiting. I would get the Scepter back, and I could continue with the work. Now that I had information of Stark's Arc Reactor, if Selvig had made progress on the Tesseract, we would be able to open the portal soon, and I would be able to keep the Scepter forever.
"Until you dragged me back into this freakshow and put everyone here at risk," Banner explained.
The power of the Scepter suddenly diminished, and every part of me instantly became heavy and tired, and my side throbbed like it hadn't ever before. Someone had picked up the Scepter.
"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay clam?" Banner questioned harshly. Banner. He picked up the Scepter. His Hulk half was coming to the surface. Finally.
After a moment of silence the Scepter's power returned to me, and Banner spoke in a much calmer voice. "Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all."
No, no, no. He was supposed to turn. He was supposed to have become the Hulk by now. The humans must be smarter than their limited advancements made them seem.
The bang of a sudden explosion rocked the entire ship. I looked around but found nothing, so it didn't originate from inside. Barton didn't tell me his plan for getting me out, but I assumed that it had started.
After a long moment of uncomfortably calm silence, animalistic cries reached me, echoing throughout the ship.
It would seem that the Hulk was released.
Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you all thought of it, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!