"And that's when you guys arrived," Clark finished explaining the situation. The team starred at him in disbelief.
"So, we have to fight Loki the Norse God and his army of aliens?" Oliver asked, not believing what he was just told.
"Actually, he's on the Helicarrier now, we captured him in Germany. And that's when his brother Thor showed up."
"Right, of course," Oliver joked. "And I thought the craziest thing was Lex performing experiments on meteor freaks."
"I better introduce you guys to the team," Clark decided as he stood up. They exited the conference room they were in and headed towards the lab. As they entered the lab Clark was glad to see Bruce and Tony had nearly found the Tesseract. However, their faces weren't ones of relief, joy or satisfaction. In fact, they looked annoyed.
"What's going on?" Clark asked as he entered the lab, followed by Oliver and his team.
"We're about to find out," Tony stated as Fury entered the room.
Fury looked at Tony and Bruce annoyed that they'd stopped working.
"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury demanded.
"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony retorted.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," he reminded them, his annoyance clearly growing. "We are," Banner replied. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."
Suddenly Tony's monitor showed a collection of Secret Files.
"What is PHASE 2?" He wondered aloud.
Suddenly, Steve dropped a Hydra assault rifle on the table causing Everyone to turn around to find Cap looking pissed off.
"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons," he revealed. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..." Fury tried to explain.
"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony interrupted. Tony moved the computer screen towards Fury which showed plans for the weapons.
Before anyone could say anything Thor and Natasha walked into the lab. Natasha kept her eyes right on Banner. Banner looked at her, just as pissed as the others.
"Did you know about this?" He demanded, pointing at the monitor.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" She ordered rather than asked.
"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," he snapped back.
Loki's manipulating you," she revealed.
"And you've been doing what exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
"I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." He demanded.
"Because of him," Fury stated pointing towards Thor, "and him." Clark was surprised to see Fury pointing at him.
Thor and Clark looked at each other before looking back at Fury.
"Me?" they asked in union.
"Not only are we not alone in the Universe, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Fury explained. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."
"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve retorted.
"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor explained.
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something."
"Nuclear deterrent. `Cause that always calms everything right down," Stark said sarcastically. "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury asked rhetorically.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck," Steve began.
"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony wondered,
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor. "The only decent one of you I've met is Kal-El."
An argument breaks out as people begin to shout at each other. Clark stands in silence as Oliver and his friends watch in shock.
"Is it always like this the?" The archer asked. As the "team" argued, they didn't realize the blue gem on Loki's sceptre begin to glow brightly.
Outside the, Helicarrier a lone carrier jet slowly hovers over the ship.
"661 Bravo, please relay your pass code. What is your hull?" a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative requested as the carrier jet flew closer.
"Arms to ammunition, over," Agent Barton replied over the radio. Inside the jet Barton and his crew attached gear and equipment, arming themselves. Barton pulled out his hi-tech bow and arrows.
Back in the lab the argument continued despite Clark trying his hardest to stop it.
"Should we help him?" Victor asked. Oliver pretended to think it over for a few moments.
"I'd say we let Clark handle this one." Clark tried to stop them from arguing, how could they be so childish, there were bigger things at stake. Finally he'd had it.
"Enough!" He shouted sending the room into silence, all eyes on him. "I can not believe you're acting like this. We're supposed to be saving the World not fighting amongst each other, we're supposed to be a team." Banner looked at him in disbelief.
"No, we're not a team. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb."
"You need to step away," Fury ordered. Tony, still acting like it was all a joke put his arm around Steve and said, "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"
"You know damn well why!" Steve snapped as he shoved Tony's arm off of hm "Back off!"
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony challenged. Clark shook his head in disbelief, he couldn't believe they were still going at it.
"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony snapped back. The room went quiet save for Bart quietly laughing. Everyone turned to him in surprise. This was the first time any of them had really paid attention to the new arrivals. Tony walked over with a smile.
"Oliver, so your in the super hero business."
"Sure am," he replied with a smile.
"So, who have we got here?" Tony wondered, scanning through the team.
"This is Oliver Queen, Arthur Curry, Victor Stone and Bart Allen," Clark introduced.
Meanwhile, outside the ramp of the carrier jet opened. The carrier manoeuvred next to one of the large turbine engines. Barton stood at the base, holding out his bow. He pulled out a Grenade tipped arrow and pointed it right at the engine. Instead of firing he moved his aim and pointed the arrow about a hundred feet from the engine. He releases the string and the arrow flew out, dew to sharp winds the arrow began to turn around and headed straight for the engine. The arrow is punctured onto the engine exactly were Barton expected it to.
"Introductions can come later," Fury shouted. "We still have a situation here. Agent Romanoff, would you escort back to his..."
"Where?" Banner interrupted. "You rented my room."
"The cell was just in case..."
"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" Banner cried. A moment passed before he continued, all eyes were on him. "I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!" A look of absolute sadness comes over Banners face as he looks at Natasha who get unnerved. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" Black Widow and Fury both reach for their guns.
"Doctor Banner," Clark stepped forward, "put down the scepter."
Banner looked down and was shocked to see he was holding Loki's sceptre.
Suddenly the computer beeped indicating the location of the Tesseract. Banner put down the sceptre and walked over to the computer. "Sorry kids, you don't get to see my little party trick after all."
"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked. "I can get there faster," Tony stated.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor stopped him. Tony turned to leave, but Steve stood in his way.
"You're not going alone!"
"You gonna stop me?" Tony challenged.
"Put on the suit, let's find out," Cap accepted.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit." At that moment Banner who was looking at the monitor noticed something about the Tesseract.
"Oh, my God," he murmured.
Outside Barton pulled the the trigger on his bow and the arrow exploded. The explosion caused the the engine to fall off of the Helicarrier. Everyone is thrown in every direction. Parts of the floor broke apart causing Natasha, Victor and Banner to fall down in the lower equipment room.
Cap looks up at Tony.
"Put on the suit," he suggested.
"Yep," Tony agreed. Steve helped Tony up and the two ran out of the lab. Fury sat up, clutching his ribs. He activated his earpiece.
"Hill?!" He shouted.
Back on the bridge pandemonium erupted. Emergency alarms were wailing, fire extinguishers activated near surrounding fires and every agent was in scrambling to get to their position. Agent Hill tried to keep the bridge as calm as possible, but wasn't having much success.
"Turn up that engine!" She ordered. "Number three engine is down! Can we get a run in?" She raced over to another agent.
"Talk to me," she instructed. The Agent pointed at the monitor in front of them.
"Turbine's loose. Mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there and make repairs while we're in the air," he explained.
"We lose one more engine, we won't be. Somebody's got to get inside and patch that engine."
"Stark!" Fury shouted into his ear piece, "You copy that?!"
"I'm on it," Tony replied.
Down in the equipment room Victor and Natasha slowly looked up from where they had fallen.
"You Okay?" Victor asked.
"Fine," she replied. They glanced over to Banner, who is breathing heavy, having landed hard. He was gripping the grated floor to maintain control, clearly struggling. His head snapped upwards, his eyes were green, his face intense.
Barton lead his men into the air ducts of the ship. They grappled down into an empty corridor.
"Get that engine down!" He ordered. "Detention! Get him through the dark!" He nodded towards two of his men.
"Come with me." The two men obediently followed him heading directly towards the bridge.
Tony and Cap ran through a dim, debris filled hall.
"Find engine three. I'll meet you there," Tony instructed. Cap peeled off as Tony approached a tech room. Inside, Tony's iron man suit stood waiting, lit up in all its glory.
Back in the equipment room Banner continued to struggle to suppress his rage, but his face was growing, changing slowly. Victor noticed Natasha's legged was trapped under a steel beam. He made his way over to her. Without a word he effortlessly lifted the beam off of her leg and threw it to the side.
"Thanks." She looked over to Banner
"Doctor... Bruce, you gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay
Listen to me," she attempted to comfort the Doctor. Two approaching S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers arrived to check on her, however, the quickly ran off when she furiously waved them away.
"We're gonna be okay. Right?" She continued to comfort him. "I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never... "
"Your life?" He shouted. Much to Natasha's fear his voice had changed. It had turned into a deep growling threat. Another explosion rocked the carrier and the lights flickered out. Bruce looked up at her as he finally lost control. His body began to grow and his skin turned green.
"Bruce," Natasha begged. Banner turned and gave her one last knowing look as the transformation completed. Victor and Natasha froze, the Hulk, sensing her, turned his head and puts on a face of a disturbed monster.
"Run!" She cried as she bolted followed closely by Victor. The duo jumped up the stairs with the Hulk chasing closely behind them.
"Hang on!" Victor shouted as he wrapped his ha d around her waist.
"What do you think your doing?" She demanded.
"Saving our lives!" He shouted back. Victor began to run faster and faster until everything around the, was a blur. Behind them, they heard a terrifying roar like nothing they'd heard before.
Captain America pushing with all his strength, opened the door to the portside of the Helicarrier, only to see that a lot of it had been destroyed and broken off.
"I'm here," he reported.
"Good," Tony replied, "see what we got." Tony flew past in his iron man suit and got close to the damaged engine. From the inside of the suit Tony observed within his view screen the damaged engine and its layouts.
"I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris," he explained.
"I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position," he instructed. With that he flew into a giant cooling conductor. Captain America got himself to the control panel and opened it. He looked at the mass of wires and screens in compete confusion. "What's it look like in there?" Tony asked.
"It seems to run on some form of electricity," he replied.
Natasha and Victor came to a halt as he lowered her to the ground.
"Your not even panting," she noted.
"Yeah well that tends to happen when your a machine."
"Your a robot?" She asked in shock.
"Cyborg," he replied. The room vibrated rhythmically, each boom a step of the green beast. Natasha pulled her gun out and slowly walked out onto the catwalk. She spun around to find the Hulk starring at her.
They begin to run, the Hulk right behind them. The Hulk swats his giant hand and sends the two flying across the room. Victor looked up from where he lay, the Hulk slowly approached them. Natasha looked up at the beast as a fear she had never felt before seeped through. The Hulk raised his fist to attack when suddenly Clark appeared and punched the beast sending him crashing into the other room. Thor, Oliver, Arthur and Bart quickly arrived. Thor and Arthur went after Banner whilst Clark and the others checked out the others.
"You guys okay," Oliver asked, fully dressed in his Green Arrow outfit.
"What took you so long?" Victor joked as Oliver helped him up.
"You alright? You seem a little shaken," Clark asked as he helped Natasha up.
"Fine," she mumbled.
"So where's the jolly green giant got to?" Oliver asked. Clark activated his x-ray vision and looked around.
"Two floors below us, far left side," Clark reported. With that he disappeared in a blur followed closely by Bart.
Arthur and HULK rolled uncontrollably across the floor. Every person in the room ran like the hell out of there. Thor flew into the room and prepared to attack as Hulk stood up. The Hulk moved like a boxer, waiting for Thor to make his move. Sick of waiting the Hulk attacked. He swung his giant fist and missed. Thor swung his hammer and almost knocked Hulk off his feet. Before he could gain balance Arthur jumped up and using all his strength punched Hulk in the head. The beast fell but was now where near finished. Clark and Bart arrived in the room, running to Arthur and Thor's side. Hulk stood opposite, he appeared to be eyeing them up.
"We are not your enemies, Banner! Try to think!" Clark begged. Hulk brought his hands together, creating a sonic clap. The heroes flew threw the air, smashing into the walls of the room. Clark looked up from where he had fallen only to be met by a green fist. Hulk repeatedly punched him until the fell to the floor below. He went to punch again but was stopped. Clark using both hands held the giant fist in its place. The Hulk pushed downwards and Clark pushed up. Before either won an arrow hit the beast in the head, creating a massive explosion on impact. They looked over to find Oliver holding his bow, loaded with another explosive arrow. Next to him stood the rest of his team as well as Thor. In a blur of movement Clark raced next to his friends. Victor raised his left arm as it transformed into a sonic cannon.
"Fire!" Oliver cried as he released his arrow. Thor threw his hammer and Victor activated his cannon. They watched in amazement as the Hulk stood still, completely unfazed by the attack.
"Everyone get behind me!" Clad, ordered. As soon as everyone was behind him his began to glow a bright red. With a cry of determination he unleashed the most powerful beam of heat vision he possibly could. A huge red beam of intense heat smashed directly into Hulk. The others where forced to leave the room, unable to cope with the heat.
"There's no way he's gonna still be standing after that," Bart said, relief that the fight would finally be over. However, back in the room that was beginning to melt away the Hulk slowly took a step forward, followed by another, then another until he was right up to Clark. Hulk grabbed Clark by the head and threw him into the ground before repeatedly stomping on him. Thor's hammer came flying through the room smashing into the Hulk.
"You okay?" Oliver asked as he helped Clark up. Clark's face was bloody and bruised, he'd never experienced a beating like that before.
"This is useless!" He cried. "We given him everything we've got and have come no closer to stopping him!"
"What else can we do?" Oliver wondered. "It's not like we can restrain him."
On the portside Iron Man continued to blast broken debris off of the turbine engine.
"It's bad, but still fixable."
"The relays are intact," Cap reported. "What's our next move?"
"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push."
"Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!"
"Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag..."
"Speak English!" Cap interrupted.
"See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word."
Thor crashed into another stack of crates. As he raised his head, he felt something on his lips, blood. As he swiped it off, the roar of the Hulk was not too far away. Arthur and Victor came crashing down next to him. Thor extended his hand out. The roar got louder and closer. Thor focused, his hand strained toward mid-air, his eyes tight in concentration. The Hulk appeared, and ran right at him. At the last second, Mjölnir flew into his hand and Thor uppercutted Hulk. Hulk was sent crashing into a fighter jet.
He stood up and shook it off. He angrily ripped off the tail of the jet, and threw it at Thor. Thor dove out of the way, just dodging the tail. An explosion hit Hulk in the back of the head. He turned around, glaring at his attacked angrily. He was met by Clark and Oliver. Clark moving at super speed charged into Hulk. Bart appeared crouching behind Hulk. Hulk tripped over him and fell to the ground. Thor jumped into the air and slammed Miölnir into he beats sending them falling through the floor.
Fury and Agent Hill looked over their monitors in the bridge.
"We need a full evac on the lower hangar bay!" He ordered. Agent Hill began to leave but a grenade rolled in front of her.
"Grenade!" She cried. The grenade went off, sending her tumbling down a set of stairs. Fury fired his gun at men he saw at the entrance.
A jet hovered next to the Helicarrier, through the large window he could see the Hulk battling the others.
"Sir, the HULK is in shuttle levels 2, 3 and 4," the pilot reported.
"Get his attention," Fury ordered.
"Escort 606, proceed to 270 MAIN SHUTTLE! Don't get to close," she instructed
"Copy," the pilot replied. The jet banked to the right, heading closer to the fight. When he had the Hulk in his sights he fires at him. Bullets smack into the Hulk as the others dive for cover. Bart noticed a series of bullets heading directly towards Arthur, Victor and Thor.
The world stopped, the only thing moving was Bart. He raced in front of his friends and grabbed all the bullets heading there way. He glanced around the room looking for what he wanted. He grabbed a large piece of debris that had fallen with them and put it in front of Thor and the others. He grabbed more and more until everyone, including Oliver where completely covered and protected. The world resumed as everyone looked curiously at the wall that had seemingly appeared right in front of them.
"How did this happen?" Thor wandered.
"That would be me," Bart smiled.
Hulk not bothering with the heroes turned to the jet attacking him. He leaped out of the room and landed on the front of the jet. The jet went spiralling out of control as it plummeted towards the ground. The heroes looked relieved when the saw the pilot safely eject as the beast continued to fall.
Iron Man laser cut a big piece of broken metal before Jumping on it, finally relieving the rotors. On the other side, Barton's men entered the port side, dressed in S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms. Cap looked down, pondering if they were there to help. Evidently not as they begin shooting at him and throwing grenades. Cap jumped to the other railing and down to Barton's men. He began to take them down, even goes as far as throwing one off. Just when he defeated them all more cam rushing in firing their weapons at him.
Back on the bridge Fury kept any soldiers from entering.
"They are not getting through here, so what the hell!" Suddenly, Barton fired an arrow down to the bridge and exploded a critical spot. Barton released another multi-tipped arrow towards Fury, but instead it hit his command desk, right above a usb outlet. Fury fired at Barton, but he was already gone. The arrow then self- activated and inserted itself into the outlet, hacking every single monitor and main frame. The hacking caused Engine 1 to shut off. Suddenly, the Helicarrier began to tilt dangerously to one side.
"Sir, we've lost all power in Engine 1," an agent reported.
"It's Barton," Fury realised. "He took out our 's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?" Still shaken by the Hulk ordeal, Natasha sat there, rocking back and forth, after crying for a while. She took a deep breath before reaching up for her ear piece.
"This is Agent Romanoff, I copy." With that she sprung up and raced after Barton.
Iron Man began to push the rotor of the turbine he had been working on.
"Stark , we're losing altitude!" Fury shouted into his earpiece.
"Yeah, noticed!" Was Tony's response. The rotors started propelling faster and faster as Iron Man's boosters got more and more bright. Captain America continuously shot at Barton's men with a gun he had picked up. One of the men threw a grenade causing Cap to loose the upper hand and slide off of the railing. Luckily, just as he began to fall he managed to grab a cable that had come lose in the explosion.
Thor ran into the detention section where he found Loki, escaping.
"NO!" He cried as he charged at his brother. Loki walked up to him and crouched down to attack. However, as Thor dived onto his brother he went straight through him. The false Loki dissipated into nothingness. The real Loki came out from behind the cell door, which closed on THOR, locking him up. Loki smiled at his brother.
"Are you ever not going to fall for that?"
Barton walked alone down a catwalk. In a lightning fast move, Barton unsheathed an arrow and pointed it at Natasha who prepared to attack. A hand-to-hand fight ensued. Natasha crawled her way around Barton, forcing him to drop his bow. He pulled out a knife and attacked again.
Thor, in a fit of anger, slammed Mjölnir onto the glass cell. To his surprise, the cell door only cracked. Loki smiled as he walked over to the control panel.
"The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?" Suddenly, Agent Coulson entered the room, holding a phase 2 weapon prototype.
"Move away, please," Coulson ordered. Loki slowly backed away from the switch.
"You like this?" He asked in reference to the gun he was holding. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?" A loud gasp escaped Coulson's lips as he was impaled through the heart. The real Loki stood behind him, a sinister smile across his face.
"Nooo!" Thor cried. Agent Coulson slumped down, breathing fast. Loki made his way to the control switch. He gave his brother one last look as he pressed the button and sent his brother falling.
Barton and Natasha continued to attack each other. Natasha kicked Barton's face. Barton responded by taking a swing at her, but she grabbed his arm, twisting it into a painful hold. Using his other arm, he tossed the knife over and began to slash at Natasha. She dodged every move, but found herself in a lock hold with him. He began to force the knife down on her when suddenly an arrow hit him in the chest wrapping him in wire. Natasha spun around to find green arrow standing behind her.
"I've got this!" She stated. Using the knife Barton began to cut the net.
"You welcome," he replied.
"Leave, now!" She ordered.
"Watch out!" He shouted as he shoved her out of the way of an incoming arrow. Oliver grabbed and arrow and fired, Barton did the exact same. The arrows met in the middle and bounced off of each other.
"Well, this should be fun," he joked before drawing another arrow. They fired again and again, all ending in the same result. Oliver knew he had to think of something. He drew another arrow and fired. On impact the arrow created a smoke screen. Oliver pressed a button on his glasses allowing him to see heat signatures. Right when he was about to attack, Natasha delivered a knock out blow to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
Thor, trapped in the glass cage, bounced around inside of the off tumbling cell pod. As it drew closer to land, Thor tried to swing at glass, but missed. Land drew closer, he didn't have long now. In a final attempt before crashing, Thor positioned himself onto the glass door and leap frogged just as the cage was about to hit the ground. The cell crashed into the shore as Thor dove out into a meadow.
Loki had absolutely no remorse as he looked down at where Thor fell. He closed the hatch and proceeded to leave.
"You're gonna lose," Coulson's stated in a weak voice.
"Am I?" He turned to the dying agent.
"It's in your nature."
"Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky...where is my disadvantage?"
"You lack conviction."
"I don't think I..." His body is sent flying as Coulson shot him with the the prototype weapon.
Iron Man continued to spin engine 3, giving it all he had. The rotor began to spin faster and faster. Finally, much to everyone's relief the Helicarrier began to level itself out.
"I need the level!" Tony cried as the rotor began to move faster then he was.
"I need a minute here!" Cap shouted back as he tried to climb up the wire.
"Lever. Now!" The rotor behind him caught up with him and slipped into the rotors.
The wire Cap was holding onto began to break. Just when it looked like he wasn't going to make it a hand reached out for him. He looked up to find Bart one hand on the railing the other out towards Cap.
"Need a hand." Cap took the hand and Bart using all his strength pulled the soldier up.
"Red lever!" He shouted. Bart spun around and pulled down the lever. A vent opened up from Engine 3 and Iron Man fell out, his suit heavily damaged, hardly keeping him up. He flew over to the platform Bart and Steve were on. He landed and rolled onto his back, tired. Cap lets out a sigh of relief.
The carrier that brought Barton and his team flew, taking Loki and his sceptre.
Fury raced into The detention section and found Agent Coulson on the floor, barely alive.
"Sorry, boss," he apologised.
"Just stay awake. Eyes on me!" He ordered.
"No. I'm clocked out here."
"Not an option."
"It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..."
Agent Coulson looked away as he took his last breath. Nick Fury looked on grimly at Coulson. The medical team raced into the room, they tried their best but it was to late.
Author's Note:
Sorry for the wait on the chapter, been distracted lately. Anyway hope you all enjoyed it and feel free to leave a review with and thoughts comments or criticisms.