I do not own Marvel, The Avengers or any of its characters. I only own my original character Arabella and anything else that seems out of place.
So here is the next installment in the Fallen Angel series. I really hope you enjoy it. I want to say thank you in advance to anyone who chooses to favorite, follow and review this story.
Exterior S.H.I.E.L.D. Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Facility – Night
Out in the New Mexico desert, a remote research facility is in a state of panic. It's an evacuation. A swooping helicopter flies in. Chaos. Men in suits run around like in the typical 'we have to leave' fashion. Soldiers on foot jump into Humvees, accelerating the hell out of there. A voice bellows from hidden loudspeakers.
Standing a few yards from the landing pad, a Fed in a suit with badass shades, peers at the helicopter as it lands. This is SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson.
Walking out of the helicopter is SHIELD Agent Maria Hill, sexy, fierce and determined. Following her, SHIELD Director Nick Fury climbs out, they approach Agent Coulson.
"How bad is it?" Director Fury asks as he stops in front of the smaller man.
Agent Coulson sighs removing his glasses, "That's the problem, Sir. We don't know."
The enter the facility, stepping into an elevator that takes them deep beneath the surface. He leads the way into the facility, through the radiation section. Hundreds of technicians and other staff run around, taking only the essentials
"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."
"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to test phase."
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event."
"It just turned itself on?" Agent Hill asked, speaking up for the first time as she followed behind the two men.
"Where are the energy levels now?"
"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac."
"How long to get everyone out?"
"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour."
"Do better."
Agent Coulson nods heading back to speed up the evac, while the Director and Agent Hill head down a long staircase to the radiation facility floor.
"Sir, evacuation may be futile."
"We should tell them to go back to sleep?"
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."
"I need you to make sure that PHASE 2 prototypes are shipped out." Fury says stopping at the bottom of the staircase.
"Sir, is that really a priority right now?"
"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of PHASE 2 on a truck and gone."
"Yes Sir." Turning to the two Agents standing by, "With me."
Fury enters the NASA Space Radiation facility, vacuum chamber where the Tesseract is being held by a compact muon solenoid coil chamber.
"Talk to me, Doctor."
Dr. Erik Selvig emerges from behind the CMS machine, concerned. The Tesseract is glowing unusually brighter and flare rings shoot out at random.
"Director."
"Is there anything we know for certain?"
"The Tesseract is misbehaving."
"Is that supposed to be funny?"
"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's… behaving"
"I assume you pulled the plug?"
"She's an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…"
"We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."
"But we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."
"That can be harmful. Where's Agent Barton?"
Selvig scoffs, "The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual."
Fury looks up to the roof where the Doctor indicated, Agent Clint Barton, dressed in black tactical gear, is sitting down leaning on the railings watching them below. Fury calls Barton on his earpiece, "Agent Barton, report."
Hawk rappels down from the catwalk and walks up to Fury. They both walk around the facility in a discreet manner.
"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."
"Well, I see better from a distance."
"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?"
"Doctor, it's spiking again." A scientist reports to Dr. Selvig behind them.
"No one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IM's. If there was any tampering, Sir, it wasn't at this end."
"At this end?"
"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides."
Dr. Selvig clacks away the keyboard and sees on the monitoring his worst nightmares. Suddenly—the Tesseract thunders and shakes the entire facility. Big enough where both Agents Hill and Coulson can feel and they're at different ends of the facility. The flaring rings and glow of the cube spout out brighter and louder, like a boiling pot of water. The Tesseract's energy builds up into a beam much like the Bifrost Bridge, which hits at the end of a platform that is wired to the CMS device. The great maelstrom beam fires the Tesseract energy. The beam then forms a vortex, which then opens up a portal.
A black hole is created. From the portal, the blackness of space, beautiful and mysterious, strewn with a billion stars appears and a gust of blue energy clouds fill the room, blinding everyone. The Tesseract's energy forms into a cloud that reaches to the top of the facility's vacuum chamber ceiling. It's abnormally quiet. Then… Heavy breathing is heard from the platform.
SHIELD guards slowly approach, weapons in hands. A figure is kneeling on the platform, smoke coming off it. It's Loki. Smiling in his mischievous manner, he raises his head. The smile dies down. He looks into the eyes of Fury, Barton and Selvig. He stands up, holding the scepter.
"Sir, please put down the spear!" Fury says in a commanding tone.
Loki looks at his spear then suddenly points it at Fury and Barton, and shoots out a blue light towards them. Barton tackles Fury and they both barely miss Loki's fired shot, it strikes the ground, exploding before them.
All hell breaks loose after that. Machine gun fire is shot at Loki, but the bullets bounce off of him like he's made of steel. He jumps high off the platform, attacking those firing at him. In the blink of an eye, Loki takes down several guards with his knives and energy blasts from the scepter. He stops and waits to see who will attack him next. Honestly, the whole lab has almost gone to shit.
Barton tries to stand up, slowly, Loki quickly walks towards him. Barton raises his gun, but Loki grabs his hand.
"You have heart."
Loki touches the tip of the spear to Barton's chest, blue light spreads up his neck to his face. His eyes turn solid black then turn a sickening shade of blue, the same color as the blue of Loki's scepter. The ability to control Barton's mind is now in Loki's hands. Barton puts his piece away and stands straight, looking to Loki for orders.
As Loki is busy using his abilities to turn another SHIELD Agent into his slave, Fury takes the Tesseract, placing it back into its case and tries to leave the lab quickly. Then…
"Please don't. I still need that."
Fury turns back to face him, "This doesn't have to get any messier."
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
Behind Loki the Doctor has stood up, "Loki? Brother of Thor?"
"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury assures him.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
"Are you planning to step on us?"
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."
"Free from what?"
"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…"
Like a gunslinger, Loki turns to face Selvig who's standing behind him. Placing his spear against Selvig's heart, his eyes turn black.
"You will know peace."
"Yeah, you say "peace," I kind of think you mean the other thing." Fury tells him, his hand on his firearm.
From the vacuum chamber ceiling, the Tesseract's energy cloud rapidly builds into what may be an implosion. Barton notices it and moves to stand by Loki's side.
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop about a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."
"Like the Pharaoh's of old." Fury confirms.
Dr. Selvig looks to the monitors, "He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this place goes critical."
"Well, then…"
Loki looks to Barton, who doesn't even hesitate as he takes out his gun and shoots Fury in the chest, who falls to the ground. Barton grabs the case containing the Tesseract and leaves the lab with Loki, Selvig and the SHIELD Agent.
They get to the bunker, at the entrance of the exiting tunnel, they walk past Agent Hill, Barton points to the Humvees. "I need these vehicles."
"Who's that?" Hill says referring to Loki.
"He didn't tell me."
Agent Hill looks suspiciously at them as Loki gets in the back of the truck. As she turns and is walking away, her walkie talkie crackles to life.
"Hill? Do you copy!"
Loki and Barton look sharply at Agent Hill as they hear Fury's voice. Inside the lab he sits up, breathing heavily and pulls out the bullet. "Barton has turned."
Back in the bunker, Hill turns to shoot at Barton, but he has already drawn his and fires multiple shots at her. He moves to the driver's seat and drives off as Hill keeps shooting. Fury calls on her radio again, "They have the Tesseract! Shut them down!"
Agent Hill slips into a Jeep and follows after Barton's truck. Several SHIELD trucks and cars pull up to them, a drive-by shooting ensues. Loki who stands in the bed of the truck, uses his scepter and emits energy blasts, flipping over SHIELD trucks. Agent Hill puts herself back a distance.
Back inside, Fury races out of the hallway, avoiding falling pipes. The entire facility is now in a full earthquake.
Outside Agent Coulson and several SHIELD Agents fall down the steps, dropping silver cases of information. They attempt to grab them, but Agent Coulson shoves them forward, "Okay, let's go. No, no, no, Leave it. Go!"
Agent Hill's Jeep roars out from a cross tunnel in front of Barton's truck, he slams on the brakes. She pulls her brake, swerving into a 180, facing Barton's truck, driving in reverse. Barton's arm reaches out the open window and opens fire. Agent Hill figures 'fuck it' and shoots out her windshield opening fire on Barton.
Agent Coulson jumps into a SHIELD truck, he picks up his walkie-talkie, "We're clear upstairs, Sir. You need to go!"
Fury bolts out of the facility and jumps into a waiting helicopter. The surface of the pad gives way, plunging the helicopter through the surface, the chopper barely makes it out.
Still in a chase, Barton pushes the pedal harder, which causes Hill's Jeep to wobble and fall back behind Barton's truck.
The Tesseract's energy cloud now shrinks into a small ball of white light. Then…
A cloud of blue light consumes the entire facility and parts of the desert. Fury watches from below, a build-up into what may be an implosion.
Agent Coulson and several Agents watch as the road directly behind their truck begins to crack and fall, dissipating into the giant hole growing around the facility.
The blast wave of the Tesseract causes the tunnel to cave in. Like an ocean wave. Blinding crumbles of rock, fall onto Agent Hill's Jeep, leaving her nearly trapped under this blanket of rock.
Barton's truck escapes the tunnel and drives into the desert landscape. Fury's helicopter roars over Barton's truck. Loki looks up. From the chopper's door, it slides open and Fury stands there, holding a gun, he opens fire on the truck.
Loki looks at Fury and in a fit of rage he fires a bolt from his scepter, hitting the helicopter in the fantail. The chopper catches fire, going down in a fiery ball. Fury waits till the chopper is just about to hit the ground, jumps out rolling onto the desert, as the chopper barrels along the ground.
He quickly gets up, pulls his gun and fires at Loki, but they're too far away. Loki looks back, smiling. Fury stands there, mind reeling. Then…
"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Agent Coulson's voice crackles through his walkie talkie.
Fury sighs before he answers, "The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"
Agent Hill climbs out of her Jeep, which is sandwiched in by rocks, but luckily, not her. "A lot of men still under. I don't know how many survivors."
"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue, looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that." Hill replies.
"Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war."
There is a beat of silence before Agent Coulson replies to the Director. "What do we do?"
Fury stands there, thinking. He looks up. On his face is a sign of hope.