To say that the ride on the quin-jet back to the helicarrier was awkward was a small understatement. Thor, as Beatrice learned was the name of the hammer-wielding guy who threw her out of the jet, was staring down Loki who was back in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Tony did as well, but more with a side of sass and sarcasm thrown every once in a while even though no one was listening. Steve sat watching Loki, but also kept an eye on Beatrice who was sitting next to him. Beatrice made sure to stay a good ways from Thor and didn't speak up at all on the way to confine Loki and interrogate him. She was looking down at her hands in her lap when she noticed that they were still shaking from her drop, so she clasped her hands together and squeezed; trying to get the shaking to stop. This however didn't go unnoticed by Steve.
"Are you okay?" Steve asked in a low voice, trying not to gain attention to the two of them. Beatrice looked at him before nodding her head and looking back at her hands.
"Yeah, just a bit jittery."
"You don't have to act tough, this type of stuff gets to the best of us."
"Not you guys." Beatrice mumbled. Steve's eyebrows scrunched together at that.
"Don't compare yourself to us." He said, his firm tone catching Beatrice off guard and getting her to face him again. "This was your first time doing anything like this, and you held your own very well. It's not everyday you can tell someone that you fought an alien and didn't lose."
"But I-"
"But nothing. Anyone would be feeling the way way your feeling if they fell out of a moving plane and nearly died. It's basic human instinct to feel like that."
Beatrice gave a small smile at his attempts to make her feel better, "Okay, thank you." Steve smiled with a small dusting of pink across his cheeks at her smile.
"No problem." Beatrice looked away again just to hear Steve say in something just above a whisper, "I'm glad you're okay, by the way." She looked back at him to see him not looking at her anymore, but looking directly ahead of them with very pink cheeks.
"Thanks." Beatrice said with a bigger smile than before, making his face get even redder. Why didn't I notice before that her eyes light up when she smiles?
"It's an impressive cage. But not built, I think, for me."
Beatrice, Steve, Agent Romanoff, Doctor Banner, Agent Hill and Thor were all listening to the conversation Director Fury was having with a contained Loki. Something about everything that was happening didn't seem right to Beatrice, her stomach felt heavy and chills kept creeping up her spine. Loki was too confident for being captured, he almost seemed relaxed which confused Beatrice to no end.
"Built to something a lot stronger than you." Director Fury said to Loki.
"Oh, I've heard." Beatrice watched as Loki looked directly at the camera in the room he was in. Doctor Banner, who was standing behind the chair Beatrice was sitting in, tensed up in Beatrice's peripheral vision at the video."The mindless beast; makes play that he is still a man. How desperate are you that you that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. 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."
Director Fury smiled smugly before starting to walk away from the "cage", "Well, let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." He left, and the video went off to leave the conference room quiet for a small while.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Doctor Banner asked, breaking the silence. Beatrice huffed before rolling her eyes.
"Like a zit." She said under her breath, but Doctor Banner heard and chuckled lightly.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked, his voice holding an authoritative power. Thor, who had been slowly pacing when listening to the conversation from before, spoke up.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people, they will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." He explained. Thor caught Beatrice's eye after he spoke, but she quickly looked away.
"An army?" Steve asked, then turned to Agent Romanoff, "From outer-space?"
"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Thor looked up as Doctor Banner mentioned the scientist.
"Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours." Agent Romanoff added into the conversation.
"He uses his staff to do it, I think." Beatrice said. "It has something to do with the blue stone in it. He tried to control me too."
"And it didn't work?" Doctor Banner asked. Beatrice spun her chair around to face the doctor.
"No, I used my ability to absorb metals to direct a coating right over my heart where he was aiming. Since his staff didn't touch the skin, it didn't affect me."
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him in. He's not leading an army from here." Steve wondered. Beatrice nodded at what he was implying.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Doctor Banner said while fiddling with his glasses, "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats; you can small the crazy on him."
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor told Doctor Banner. Agent Romanoff started to speak without looking up from the table.
"He's killed eighty people in two days."
" . . .He's adopted."
Then something popped into Doctor Banner's head, "Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent." Beatrice turned as Tony walked into the room like he owned the place dressed now in a suit along side Phil. Tony turned to the agent and finished the conversation Beatrice guessed they were having before walking into the room. "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive."
"Thank." Phil waved awkwardly at Tony before walking to the other side of the room.
"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." Tony patted Thor's arm before walking to the head of the bridge where Director Fury would have been standing. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."
Tony then started to yell at the crew like he was the captain of a ship, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA!" Tony suddenly added, making Steve, Thor and Beatrice turn to the agent who Tony was pointing at, "Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He then covered his left eye and asked, "How does Fury do this?"
"He turns." Agent Hill said bluntly, her arms crossed over her chest and her facial expression saying she was pretty much done with Tony's sarcasm."
"Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked Tony.
Doctor Banner spoke up, making everyone turn to him, "He's got to heat the cube to hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony added.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally!" Tony sighed, walking over to Doctor Banner's side, "Someone who speaks English?"
"Is that what just happened?" Beatrice and Steve asked at the same time. They both turned to each other as the room went a little silent. Beatrice smiled as Steve was a little shocked before smiling back.
"Jinks." Beatrice said with a laugh. Tony looked between the girl and the soldier before rolling his eyes and going back to talk to his new friend.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony said, shaking the man's hand. Doctor Banner looked uncomfortable at the mention of his "ability" before saying,
"Thanks"
Just then, Director Fury walks into the room and starts talking directly to Tony, trying to get a certain point across, "Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him."
"Let's start with that stick of his; it may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve said. Beatrice looked confused and she seemed to be the only one.
"HYDRA?" She asked. Steve was about to answer when Director Fury cut him off.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys? I don't understand." Thor said, looking very confused.
Steve though, nearly jumped out of his seat ready to finally get something pop culture related, "I do! I understood that reference."
Tony rolled his eyes behind the Captain before turning to Doctor Banner, "Shall we play, doctor?" He asked. Doctor Banner motioned for Tony to start leading the way and they were about to leave the bridge before Tony walked back to the table and spun Beatrice's chair around to face him.
"You, Silver Bells, come with us."
"Why?"
"I'm sure the good doctor over there is very curious how you got your powers since you didn't seem to fall into any vats of toxic waste in your life. That and I find you amusing, so would you join us?" Beatrice shrugged her shoulders and stood up following Tony and Doctor Banner out of the room. No one seemed to notice Steve's scrunched up eyebrows at their little interaction.
here's chaper 7! i seemed to have added a bunch of steve/beatrice moments in there
*shrugs shoulders* oops :D
anyway, please follow and comment (especially comment), maybe help me come up with a name for steve/beatrice's ship 3