Bruce Banner was tired, bone-achingly so. The aircraft used to transport him from Romania had felt too cramped for the introverted scientist, despite not being in his other form.
Placing the oxygen-mask over his face, Bruce waited with growing impatience for the plane's door to open. Unsealing with a whisper of air, the door pulled itself away, allowing Bruce room to manoeuvre out onto the asphalt-topped expanse of the Helicarrier. Bruce felt his eyes widen slightly in wonder as he was once again confronted with the extraordinary sight. Swiveling his head around in an effort to take in as much of his surroundings, Bruce quickly became distracted – taking hesitant yet intrigued steps out towards the other air-crafts.
"This way, Mr Banner," a steely voice called out from behind him.
Jumping slightly at the sound, Bruce nodded sharply in response to the waiting SHIELD operative, wringing his hands out of habit as they headed towards the underground entrance. Bruce had had no incidents since the run-in with the kid in Amity Park last week – the other guy hadn't made a peep since – but he still felt nervous about flying in the large metal airship thousands of feet above sea-level. Even more nervous about how He was going to react.
Stepping inside the small alcove leading down towards the central-controls room, Bruce held his breath and prayed for luck to be on his side.
/ / /
Natasha held her head high as she entered the debriefing room, her face set in a permanent scowl as she yanked out one of the vacant chairs from the black table and proudly seated herself – primly ignoring her co-workers to instead stare coldly at the wall directly ahead.
"Tashie! Nice to see you've joined the party!" Tony flopped into the seat beside her, a wide and condescending grin slowly peeled across his face, "I haven't seen you since our little ghost-town tour!"
Natasha clucked her tongue, continuing to look at the far wall, "I don't know what you're talking about," she hissed, ignoring Clint's curious glance.
Tony smirked, "Oh, you know, when you had to beg me to come help you since you were so terrified of the brooding teenager and his spandex-wearing parents."
Natasha's eyes swivelled to glare at Tony in disgust and anger, "I was afraid for him, Stark. It doesn't matter anyway, the boy's dead and Bruce is back under control so there's no reason to worry," she said coldly.
It was a self-defence mechanism of Natasha's – remove the guilt by separating oneself from the problem. Take yourself out of the situation and you felt no remorse. It may have been her fault that the boy had been killed by an out-of-control Bruce, but she wasn't going to let it affect her career. Her ledger was already seeping as it was, what could a little more red hurt?
Tony laughed long and hard at Natasha, who was quickly becoming miffed at the billionaire's attitude. Other members of the Avengers initiation had slowly begun to trickle into the room – casting odd looks at Tony, who only laughed harder.
"Dead?" Tony choked out, "Even if he was completely, I wouldn't be any less scared of him! In fact, I'd probably be more!"
"What are you barking on about now, Stark?" Clint spoke up, interest edging his icy tone.
"Ignore him," Steve intercepted as he lowered himself into a seat away from Tony – Jane and Thor quickly following suit, " He's speaking in riddles; trying to annoy everyone on purpose."
Tony shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm bored. Besides, I already told you, you just chose to not believe me."
"Told me what exactly?" Steve asked, before his attention was diverted by a ragged and tired man shuffling his way into the room. Bruce Banner half-heartedly waved at the small group, glancing at Tony who gave him a sharp nod, and sat in the chair next to him, slumping down with a worn and worried expression.
"Nice to see the gang back together, I suppose," Bruce rested his chin on his palm, "I haven't met you though," he murmured, looking a Jane questionably.
"You should know her through spirit, as the bond between Jane and myself grows ever-stronger as each passing of the sun rises and sets," Thor boasted proudly.
Jane rolled her eyes, "I'm Jane Foster," she offered, "Pleasure to meet you, Mr Banner, I've heard much about your work with Gamma radiation."
"If I knew it was bring-your-girlfriend-to-work day, I would have brought Pepper. At least she appreciates me," Tony drawled out.
Natasha grunted, "Oh, just shut up for once, Stark."
/ / /
Danny paced back and forth across the length of the containment chamber, constantly slanting sharp looks at the flickering red dot in the far corner of the room.
He sighed heavily, ice particles hovered in front of him, blurring his sight. He had no idea where he was or how long he had been here. The large room was windowless and difficult to look out to under the glaring lights. He had only seen the dot by chance as it winked furiously at him during his agitated pacing.
Danny supposed he could simply use his ghostly wail to break out of the cell, but that always left him feeling weak and dizzy. It was better to stay undercover; find out as much information about these people as possible. Danny didn't have an ounce of trust for the suits despite their claims that they were a government-funded law enforcement agency – Tony's expression back at Jane's lab had spoken volumes to him, and had left Danny feeling rather off-kilter and worried. These people were not to be played with if they had Tony Stark on edge.
Dragging out the card tucked up the end of his half-melted sleeve, Danny re-read the information splayed across it for the sixth time.
Agent Maria Hill had definitely come in handy. Her card told Danny her career position, her agency's name, her age, even her blood-type. But most importantly, it told him that she had almost full clearance to the agency… Well, she would have, if she still had her swipe-card.
Sharply looking back up at the camera, Danny tucked the card further up his sleeve out of sight, walking to the glass-wall to peek out into the darkness at the red dot to see if it had suddenly and unceremoniously died. It hadn't.
Danny released a cold breath, fern frost spreading rapidly across the glass, obscuring his view as it wound its way across in intricate patterns. The ice didn't melt on impact against the ghost shield.
Tentatively raising a hand, Danny pressed exposed fingertips on the thin ice, pressing firmer as no electric currents came to zap him into oblivion.
"Huh, would you look at that?" Danny smirked darkly, taking in a chilly breath.
/ / /
"It appears, gentleman and ladies, that we have a bigger situation at hand then we had hoped," Nick Fury began as he stepped into the room, "Already, we have lost all signs of the whereabouts of Loki and his companion."
"Lost? So what do we do? Track the Tesseract's Gamma waves down again or wait until he pops up for his grand entrance?" Bruce asked.
"The Tesseract is securely in its vault in Asgard. Neither Loki nor the other being had the chance to take it. The Draugur had had it in its possession when Loki was assumed dead," Thor gritted out.
Clint frowned. He did not like being out of the loop, "What's a Draugur?"
"It's a magical zombie," Tony lounged in his chair, waving a hand carelessly.
"A what?" Natasha's eyes widened comically.
Tony's lips twitched up, "I'm kidding! It's just a ghost that has magical zombie powers. As if zombies are real."
Clint's brow furrowed deeper, "That isn't relieving at all."
Natasha nodded in agreement.
"If you would like to focus on the problem at hand, people, we have to figure out what exactly Loki is planning if he's not using the Tesseract," Fury's single eye glinted dangerously.
Silence spread throughout the room.
Steve raised his head, "What about Danny? Can we use him? He knew about those DALV people – he might know more…"
Natasha piqued an eyebrow up, "Who's Danny?"
"A magical zombie ghost whom we've all managed to thoroughly piss off and just escaped from his cell," Tony quipped.
"What?" Fury and Thor roared. A deep crack spread its way across the tabletop where Thor's fist collided with it.
Tony pulled himself up out of his seat, ambling towards the row of camera visuals, and enlarged a single frame. The containment cell that had once held both Thor and Loki was encased in frost, prohibiting anyone from looking into the cell, which was most likely empty.
"When did this happen?" A vein became increasingly prominent in Fury's temple as he hissed at Tony.
Tony casually rocked on his heels, "About ten minutes ago, I think. I didn't time it."
Tension was thick in the room.
Steve whispered disbelievingly, "Stark, I struggle for words to describe you."
"Why thanks, Captain Popsicle."