Tony did indeed tell Fury, who called in the rest of the available Avengers- the only one who didn't come was Black Widow as she was 'otherwise occupied' as he put it- and made me retell the whole of what had happened for them.
"So there are more of those aliens out there?" asked Steve after I'd finished, looking troubled. "What will happen if Loki shows up here?"
"I they wanted to attack Earth they would have already done so," pointed out Tony, leaning forwards on their chair. "I mean they seem to have the means to travel around."
"Which they probably already had," I pointed out. "They can probably only send small groups which is why they needed the Tesseract to move their whole army."
"Not their whole army, as you pointed out," countered the playboy. "Besides, they seem more preoccupied with catching Loki so why bother with them?"
"Well what about after they've caught Loki?" asked Bruce. "What's to stop them then?"
It was a daunting thought. The idea of the whole- however large that was- Chitauri army invading Earth and everyone having to battle what would definitely be a more dangerous threat.
"If Jess is right then they'd need to get the Tesseract back in order to pull off this invasion," Clint said after a while.
"Which is probably why they're chasing Loki so relentlessly," I added. "They want him to get the Tesseract for them."
Fury rubbed his temples, leaning on the desk as we all argued over this and avoided voicing the thing we were all thinking. That one thought which was circling around our head and seemed so reckless and impossible that we would never say it.
I glanced around at everyone's faces, no-one seemed relaxed and we all seemed to be hesitant about voicing that one thought.
"We can't let them get Loki," I finally said, the reaction as expected when everyone looked at me with mixed expressions from shock to anger.
"So you're saying we should play bodyguard to the guy who tried to take over the world?" asked Clint stiffly, tensing up and folding his arms across his chest. "How about we catch him and then just hand him over to Asgard so they can get round to punishing him."
"That would put him in close proximity to the Tesseract," replied Bruce, shifting slightly under Hawkeye's gaze. "And he's already escaped from Asgard once- who's to say he won't do it again?"
"Wait, are we seriously suggesting keeping Loki here?" asked Stark, looking expectantly at Fury. "Well I hope you've got somewhere to keep him."
"I think we should be able to find him first, don't you?" countered Fury. "We have no idea where he is and even if he does come here it sounds like he won't stick around long enough for us to find and retrieve him- he could escape as soon as we engage him."
A few glances were sent my way and I could guess what they were all thinking- they wanted to use me to lure Loki in, he was using me for my powers and because he knew I wouldn't deny him that. So it made sense that he would come to me again, even if I were with the Avengers he could easily escape.
Part of me was willing to take this risk, to talk to Loki, but another part of me wanted nothing to do with it. Maybe Tony was right and the Chitauri wouldn't come back, maybe they had learnt their lesson about messing with humans and would go back to whatever it is they did in their spare time.
But I remembered Thanos, the villain who had shown up in the credits- I didn't know much about him except that he wasn't some push over villain and if he decided to come down to Earth himself…
"Not unless someone convinces him that it's in his best interests to stay with us," Bruce said slowly. "As an ally rather than an enemy."
"Are you nuts?" Clint stood up, hands on the table as he looked at each of us. "This guy tried to take over the world, kept me and others as his personal slaves and you expect us to be all buddy-buddy with him?"
"If we catch him then he could just as easily escape- we have no idea how he's managed to find a way to create portals," pointed out Steve, trying to calm Clint down. "We'd have a better chance of keeping him around if we were allies."
"But keep him around for how long? Because I don't think the Chitauri are going to give up."
It was true, we couldn't keep the Chitauri at bay forever- especially since there was already a group in pursuit and who knows how they were managing to get about… It hit me then- the Chitauri must have a device that allows them to open a portal for a small time, or maybe one of them has an ability or some spell. If we could take whatever was allowing them to come over away then they would never be able to get their hands on the Tesseract. Hopefully.
"We need to take away their ability to transport," I said, and they looked at me. "Whatever their using if we can take it from them then they won't be able to pursue Loki and the Tesseract."
"But what if there is more than one of these… things?" asked Steve.
"If they did then they wouldn't have needed the Tesseract in the first place and they certainly wouldn't go through all of the effort they're going through now just to get it." Tony was looking extremely thoughtful. "If we can keep Loki here long enough for the Chitauri to appear here then it should be easy work to catch them and find out what it is they're using."
"And how do you plan on keeping Loki around?" asked Fury in disbelief. "Invite him for a sleepover?"
"Actually…" began Tony, his eyes flicking over to me slightly. "I was hoping our resident Crazy Chick might have a chat with him."
"Stark no- you can't endanger a civillians life like that," argued Steve, looking like he might leap out of his chair too. "Detaining Loki as a prisoner is one thing but putting her in the line of fire-"
"In case you haven't noticed she does heal quite well," interrupted Tony.
"But she's still a civilian- she has no fighting skills and wouldn't stand a chance against Loki if he decided to attack her," protested the soldier. "No offense, ma'am."
"None taken," I replied, shifting slightly at the awkward atmosphere in the room.
Clint had sunk back into his chair but was still pissed about the idea, Bruce was like me and feeling rather awkward, Tony and Steve were probably going to be at each others throats and Fury was sporting the world's largest headache.
"Well how else to you plan on making him stay?" asked Tony.
"Capture him- like we did before-"
"When he was playing Galaga," interrupted the playboy, Steve's jaw twitching slightly. "As you said, that guy packs a wallop and if he decided to clear out of there he may never come back. We effectively have one chance and if we blow this then we could end up facing an even bigger invasion than last time. It's not as if we're leaving her on her own and if you're that worried about her then make her stay at my tower were Jarvis can inform us if Loki shows up and decides to kill her."
Steve looked like he wanted to continue arguing, but he could see that Tony wasn't going to give up on this idea.
"You can even stay as well- and the other four, then she'll be totally protected and we'll be fully capable of taking care of anything that shows up," added Tony.
"Well I still don't think that it's a good idea."
"Perhaps you should ask Miss Attwater if she would like to do it," interceded Fury, and again everyone turned to look at me.
"Sure, why not?" I replied with a shrug.