Chapter 17 – It All Falls Down

"Nick?"

Fury turned away from Darcy, Sif, and Coulson to face Soladat, who had a very displeased look on her face.

"Agent Wrekk?" Fury questioned. He blinked when Soladat held up a small beeping device. Three to be exact.

"I found these placed on different computer monitors throughout the ship." Soladat said. "Someone's trying to hack us."

Fury's face immediately fell, and Soladat backed away slightly at the look he was giving.

Stark. Fury thought angrily, and immediately marched up out of the bridge and towards the laboratory, with Coulson and Soladat following him. Darcy and Sif exchanged confused glances and raced after the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

ooooo

Tony laid Carrie's unconscious body on one of the laboratory's tables. He and Bruce looked her over, and were amazed at how peaceful she looked. Seriously, she was out like a corpse.

"Okay, I'm officially freaked out here." Tony said to Bruce. "Mind telling me why Snow White suddenly decided to drop dead in front of us?"

"She's not dead." Bruce said, frowning, and checked her pulse. "She's just under some kind of catatonic shutdown. Must have something to do with the scepter."

"What happened?"

Bruce and Tony looked and saw Hikesh had entered the lab. He immediately pushed past the pair and studied the unconscious psychic. He looked at Bruce and Tony.

"Well?"

"She blacked out." Bruce said. "The scepter started glowing and when she touched it, she just fell unconscious."

Hikesh blinked in curiosity, and Bruce and Tony backed away in surprise when the green aura of dark energy surrounded Hikesh. He put his hand up against Carrie's forehead and read her.

"She is trapped in some kind of mental plain…" Hikesh said, still reading the girl. "… with some other psychic presence. Whatever it is, she is afraid of it. Very afraid."

"Are you saying there's something in her mind that's doing this?" Tony said, confused. Hikesh's aura faded as he pulled away from Carrie. He shook his head at Tony.

"No. Carrie White's subconscious has merely been pulled from her mind and into another plain of existence." He looked over at the scepter, closing his eyes and he mentally scanned the object. He opened his eyes. "And I'm guessing that the scepter is what is causing it."

"Mr. Stark, would you mind explaining…"

Tony, Bruce, and Hikesh turned to see Director Fury, Soladat, Agent Coulson, Darcy, and Sif enter the lab, but they stopped in the doorway, eyes widened when they saw Carrie lying unconscious on the table. Fury glared up at the three.

"What did you do?"

"We didn't do anything!" Tony said, raising his hands up in defense. "She just waltzed in here like a zombie, touched the scepter, and then passed out!"

"The scepter is giving off some kind of telepathic broadcast." Hikesh explained and Agent Coulson quickly ran over and checked the girl's vitals. "Carrie White was somehow drawn to it, and direct exposure to the object has wrenched her mind into a psychic illusion."

"A telepathic broadcast?" Darcy said, thinking. After spending the last year with Jane and Erik, Darcy's scientific intelligence had been boosted somewhat. "So the scepter can mentally link a person from one point in space to another? That must be how Loki has been contacting his space friends."

"It's a reasonable theory." Sif said. "Loki's allies must have been trying to reach him. When Loki was not here to answer the call, someone else answered it instead."

"But what is she seeing?" Soladat said, looking worried. "If she's face to face with whoever it is Loki is working with, she can't be in polite company."

"Hikesh, can you get her out of this?" Fury asked the Prothean.

Hikesh shook his head. "No. Carrie White's mind is currently linked with the scepter. Trying to force her out of it could cause the scepter to spontaneously combust, and I don't think we want that kind of damage onboard this ship."

"Damnit." Fury muttered, and then turned to Coulson. "Agent Coulson, please take Ms. White to the medical bay."

"Yes, sir." Coulson nodded. He gently picked Carrie up and carried her out of the lab. Once the door closed, Tony broke the silence with a loud sigh.

"Okay, now that freakout theater is over, was there something you needed?" He said to Fury. Fury suddenly remembered what they came in here for. He turned to Soladat and nodded. She nodded back and presented Stark's tracking devices.

"Mind telling us why we found these scattered throughout the ship?" Fury said, glaring.

"Just doing my own investigation." Tony said, smirking. "You did ask me to investigate, after all."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury retorted.

"We are." Bruce said. "The models locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah, you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." A screen behind Tony suddenly started beeping, and Tony turned around and read something off of it, and then turned back to the group. "What is phase two?"

Suddenly, the door slid open and Captain America entered, carrying a large crate. He placed it on the table that Carrie had been laying on earlier, and looked at Fury disapprovingly.

"Phase two is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the cube to make weapons." He looked back at Tony. "Sorry, Stark. The computer was moving a little too slow for me."

Tony smiled in approval, but Fury did not look pleased. "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..."

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted, and directed everyone's attention to the screen. It showed blueprints to a high tech weapon. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, director." Steve said, frowning. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Soladat immediately turned towards Fury, looking shocked. "Nick, is this true?"

"Soladat, please…" Fury tried to explain, but Soladat just stopped him.

"You told me that work with the Tesseract was strictly for beneficial purposes," She said, glaring, "not to make weapons and machines of mass destruction!"

Agent Romanoff then entered the laboratory, but Bruce glared her. "Did you know about this?"

But Natasha was not in the mood for whatever it was that they were arguing about. Instead, she actually looked worried. "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"

Bruce laughed harshly. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you." Natasha argued.

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

Natasha glared. "You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes," Bruce bit harshly, "and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy."

Everyone watched as Bruce marched over to the monitor, pointing at it with a small wand-looking tool. "Now I wan't to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction."

Fury sighed, and then pointed to Darcy and Sif. "Because of them."

Sif glared. "Excuse me?"

"Us?" Darcy said, blinking in confusion. "What did we do?'

Fury put his hands behind his back. "Last year, Earth got caught up in an extraplanetary feud that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone in the universe, but we are hopelessly, and hilariously, outgunned."

The director then looked over at Hikesh. "And not only that, but we recently discovered the existence of a race of hostile robotic creatures that are waiting to destroy all life in the galaxy. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

Steve spoke up. "Like you controlled the cube?"

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Sif hissed. "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve said, confused.

"The mutant is right." Hikesh said, and Sif again glared at the comment. "If anything, all humanity has really done is make their world a target."

"They forced our hand." Fury argued. "We had to come up with something."

"Like a nuclear deterrent." Stark interjected. "Cause that always calms everything down."

Fury sighed in annoyance. "Stark, remind me again how you made your fortune?"

"I sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep..." Captain America said harshly, glaring daggers at Stark.

Stark looked offended. "Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted.

"I thought humans were more evolved then this." Sif said, frowning. Darcy glared at the Asgardian.

"Excuse me, but did we come to your planet and start blowing stuff up?"

"Hm… let me think. Yes!" Sif snarled at the girl. Suddenly, everybody in the room started arguing with each other. It was almost impossible to make out what was being said, as everyone was talking over each other. They were so caught up in their petty fueds that they didn't notice the scepter had started glowing.

ooooo

In the med bay, Carrie suddenly sat up, gasping heavily. Coulson looked over at her in surprise and immediately ran over to check up on her.

"Are you alright?" He asked. Carrie looked around wildly.

"What happened?" She said. "Where did they go?"

"Where did who go?" Coulson asked.

"The monsters!" Carrie said, almost hysterically. "I was in space, and there were creatures prowling around. They were hissing and shrieking! And there was this thing… like a man, but not really…"

Coulson frowned in confusion and quickly calmed Carrie down. "Hey, relax. Relax…"

Carrie's breathing slowed and she slowly calmed down. Once she stopped panicking, Coulson gently asked her, "Now, tell me exactly what you saw."

Carrie took a deep breath. "There was this man. But he wasn't totally human. His skin was all purple, and he started asking me all of these questions."

"What kind of questions?" Coulson asked, looking concerned.

"About stuff like the Tesseract, Loki, and the Earth." Carrie said. "When I didn't answer he… did something. I think he was reading my mind, but the way he did it, it hurt. It… it felt like something was ripping my head open from the inside."

Coulson's eyes widened in shock. Carrie continued talking. "It felt like it would go on forever, the pain. But eventually he stopped. And then he said he was done with me, and would leave me to my fate. Then I woke up here."

Coulson looked ready to say something, but then Carrie's eyes widened. "Oh my god… Barton!"

Coulson blinked. "What about Barton?"

"He's coming here!" She said. "He's gonna break Loki out!"

ooooo

Back in the lab, everyone was still arguing, although this time it was easier to make out what was being said. Sif was currently barking at Fury.

"… You speak of control, and yet you court chaos!"

Bruce interjected, shaking his head. "It's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're...we're a time-bomb."

Fury stepped towards Bruce, putting his hand up. "You need to step away."

But Tony came up to Bruce's defense, patting his shoulder. "Come on, Fury, why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam."

"Stark…" Soladat said warningly, but Steve pushed Tony away from Bruce, glaring.

"You know damn well why, now back off!"

Tony glared back at the super soldier. "You know I'm starting to want you to make me."

Steve just scoffed at the inventor, circling around him, studying him. "Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

Tony turned around to face the captain again, looking smug. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Darcy smirked, finding the comment funny. Soladat and Natasha looked at each other and shrugged, since that was technically true.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve hissed, glaring daggers at Stark, who he really wanted to punch right now. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

The whole time, Tony's normally passive face had become screwed up with anger. He bit back. "I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out, right." Steve said, shaking his head. Then he glared back up at Stark. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you?" Stark said, feigning humor. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Steve glared and shoved Tony. "Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

The two looked over when Sif suddenly started laughing at them. "You mortals are so petty… and tiny."

"You are in no position to judge, mutant." Hikesh said, having been silent through the entire conversation. He was getting tired of the Asgardian's arrogance, and couldn't help but throw back his own rebuttal. Sif glared at the Prothean, fed up with the creature's mutant comments.

"If there is something you wish to discuss, Prothean, then let's hear it." Sif hissed. "After all, I have all eternity to listen."

Hikesh's four eyes glared menacingly at the Asgardian, and he marched up to her. "As a matter of fact there is."

"Xegh…" Soladat tried to say, but Hikesh didn't even seem to hear her.

"Your 'people' hold themselves in very high regard as I have seen." Hikesh said to the maiden. "You live off kings, you live for thousands of years, and yet you do not know yourselves still."

Sif eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"

"Have you ever wondered how your world came to be, Sif?" Hikesh said. "Asgard could not possibly be a natural phenomenon, as an island floating in the void of space is meteorlogically impossible."

"Asgard is kept afloat by ancient magics." Sif hissed. "It has been around since the birth of the universe itself!"

Hikesh laughed. "So you think."

Everyone in the room looked at the Prothean in curiosity, and listened intently as he explained. "Fifty-thousand years ago, my people were masters of the galaxy. Our empire spanned across thousands of not millions of worlds. Then, one day, we came across the planet you humans now call Earth."

"Humanity was but primitive at the time. Your people lived in caves and fed off of berries and raw meat. Most of my people didn't see any value in your species, but a select few of us did." Hikesh said. "A team of our best scientists had been working on a secret research facility hidden near the center of the galaxy. It was an advanced Prothean construct that used top secret and highly advanced technology in order to stay stable in that region of space. My people called it Asgard."

Everyone in the room, mainly Darcy and Sif, bared looks of complete and utter shock at the Prothean's words.

"You're lying." Sif hissed, glaring. "You must be. Asgard has no beginning. My people would be able to remember if…"

"Your 'people' exist because of us!" Hikesh snarled. Sif shut up, but continued to glare. Hikesh went on. "As I said, Asgard was only known to a select few. It was meant to be research facility that housed the Prothean Empire's highly classified, and controversial, experiments. I knew of it because I had performed secret covert assignments such as deliveries. And that is how you all started."

Everyone listened intently. "Like I said before, some scientists saw value in humanity. Me and a few other agents were given the job to take a select group of human primitives from Earth and deliver them to the Asgard facility. There, the humans underwent extensive genetic rewrite and enhancements, giving them intelligence, speech, enhanced stamina, and prolonged lifespans. It was an attempt to create perfect biological weapons."

Hikesh sighed, looking down. "However, before the project could go any further, the Reapers appeared."

"You mean the race of immortal battleships waiting on the edge of space to wipe out all organic life?" Stark piped in. Everyone looked at him. "Personal records."

Ignoring Stark, Hikesh continued speaking. "When the Reapers attacked most of my people were scattered. I do not know what became of Asgard during the war but I had long assumed the scientists there would be killed. However, I see now that it did indeed survive, although my people did not prosper with it. Apparently, the mutants we bred had adapted to the technology on the station and used it to create their own society and culture. They transformed a technological Prothean marvel into an embodiment of pure fantasy."

"Wait," Darcy said, "so the Protheans created the Asgardians?"

"No." Sif hissed, glaring daggers at the Prothean. "This creature is spouting lies. There's no way that… he can't be telling the truth!"

"I do not expect you to believe me, woman." Hikesh said. "But I speak the facts."

"But wait." Darcy said. "What about the Bifrost? Is that a Prothean creation, too?"

Hikesh frowned, thinking, and then remembered. "The device you call Bifrost is based on the technology of the mass relays, Reaper devices that my people used to jump from one area of space to the next. The Prothean scientists in Asgard used it as a means of traveling to different worlds whose native species were involved in our experiments. Such as the Jotuns."

"So now you're saying that the Frost Giants were bred by your people as well?" Sif said incredulously. "Utter nonsense!"

Hikesh glared. "We did not create the Jotuns, mutant. We merely observed them and studied their barbarism."

"Do not call me that!" Sif yelled, and everyone stepped away from the Asgardian, who marched up to the Prothean, not caring that we was four inches taller than her. "I don't know who you think you are, but my people are not wretches that you dare claim to have experimented on like Warlragrs!"

"Like what?" Tony said, confused, but Sif ignored him. Hikesh shoved Sif away from him, and Sif attempted to shove him back, but a dark energy field was raised around his body, and Sif's hand bounced off the field, burning slightly.

"Do not even try to harm me." Hikesh said dangerously. "We created you, we studied you, we know your weaknesses. Despite all of your strengths and endowments, you are human, just like everyone else present."

Sif's eyes twitched in anger, and she looked so eager to kill the Prothean. From his position near the table, Bruce gave a harsh chuckle.

"Yeah, this is a team."

"Agent Romanoff," Fury said to the Black Widow, "would you please escort Dr. Banner back to his…"

"Where?" Bruce interrupted, looking at Fury with disgust. "You rented my room."

Fury tried his best to reassure the distraught scientist. "The cell was just…"

"In case you needed to kill me!" Bruce sneered. "Well you can't! I know, I've tried!"

Everyone in the room suddenly went silent. All attention was on Banner, with looks of horror, shock, and pity. Realizing what he just said, Banner sighed and lowered his head in shame.

"I got low, alright." He said. "I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in n my mouth and the other guy spit it out."

Soladat took a step towards Bruce. "Bruce…"

"Get away from me!" Bruce hissed, and Soladat retreated from him, looking somewhat scared.

Bruce turned his furious gaze to Director Fury, who took a step back. "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."

When Bruce turned towards her, Natasha's face paled but otherwise remained unnerved. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

No one said anything. They all just stared at the frustrated scientist in suspicion. Bruce stepped back slightly when Captain America approached him. "Dr. Banner… Put down the scepter."

Bruce blinked in confusion, and then looked down and saw, in surprise, that he was gripping the scepter. He instantly put it down, scared at what he just did. No one else had a chance to say anything, because the computer screen on the table suddenly started showing a signal. They had finally located their target.

Bruce turned to the monitor and immediately attended to it. "Sorry kids," he said harshly, "you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You found the cube?" Darcy said.

"I can get there faster!" Soladat said, her wings unfolding slightly. Tony looked at her bemusedly.

"You? I'm the one with the suit, sweetheart."

"Look, all of us…" Steve tried to say, but Sif, being the superbly arrogant bitch I keep depicting her as, interrupted him.

"The Tesseract belongs in Asgard. No human is a match for it."

"So technically you are no match for it, then." Hikesh said, smirking. Sif grit her teeth at the Prothean. Ignoring everyone else, Tony started to exit the lab, but Steve stopped him.

"You're not going alone."

"You gonna stop me?" Tony challenged, growing tired of the super soldier's tirade.

"Put on the suit, and let's find out." Steve challenged.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

"WAIT!"

Everyone jumped and looked towards Soladat, who had a look of concentration. She seemed to be listening intently to something, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Then, her eyes widened in fear. Natasha frowned.

"What is it?"

Soladat looked at Natasha. "Barton."

Suddenly, the Helicarrier quaked as an explosion suddenly overtook the lab, trashing all of the scientific equipment and sending the occupants flying in different directions. Natasha and Bruce were blown out through a window overlooking the Helicarrier's sublevels, disappearing from sight. Sif and Hikesh were able to stand ground and remained standing, while Darcy, without the power of Mjolnir, was thrown through a window and into the hallway. Fury and Soladat were slammed against a wall while Steve and Tony were unharmed, as they were standing at safe distances. There was smoke and fire everywhere, and the trashed lab equipment sparked and sizzled from the damage.

"Put on the suit." Steve told Tony, who instantly nodded.

"Yep."

The two left the burning laboratory in a rush. Soladat stood up, grunting in pain, and helped Fury up to his feet.

"Is everyone alright?" Fury shouted over all the noise.

"No." The voice of Darcy said from the hallway.

"We are unharmed." Hikesh said, referring to him and Sif. Soladat looked around in worry.

"Where's Natasha? And Dr. Banner?"

Fury's eye widened and he immediately took out his walkie-talkie. "Agent Romanoff? Agent Romanoff, do you copy?"

ooooo

In the sublevel below the laboratory, Natasha hissed in pain as he tried to wrench her leg free from a pile of debris. She looked over to see Bruce lying face down on the ground, groaning in pain. Hearing the static from her walkie-talkie, Natasha paged Fury.

"This is Romanoff. We're okay." She assured her superior. Then she glanced over at Bruce. He was grunting and clenching his fists, a sign of the worst in Natasha's eyes. Her fearless face fell at that moment and bared a look of alarm.

"We're okay right?"

And we'll stop there. I tried to take a break, I really did. But I'm so intent on writing this I couldn't stay away, so sew me. So wow, things have gotten bad pretty fast. Next chapter… well I think you can guess how things will be lol.

So yes, the Protheans created Asgard, the Bifrost, and the Asgardians. More of that will be explained later on. It was an idea I had when I first started writing this fic. And about the whole Carrie thing, I figured the Chitauri had been contacting Loki through the scepter via telepathy, since Loki has been shown to have some extra sensory abilities. Since Carrie is a powerful telepath herself, she herself was able to respond to the scepter when the Chitauri were trying to contact Loki again.

Hope you liked this chapter. Review pleaz and hav a nice day.