Link recovered more quickly than most after the explosion and quickly assessed everything he could see. Everyone but Dr. Banner and Agent Romanov was present, if in varying stages of recovery, which was mostly good. Steve and Tony were right next to each other and fairly separate from the rest of the party, so Link moved closer to the three Shield agents. He helped Agent Hill to her feet and picked up the other two right after.
"Barton," Coulson said.
"What'd he hit?" Hill asked.
"An engine, unless I'm an idiot," Link said, "Where do you three need to be?"
"Bridge!" Fury yelled, perhaps more noise-blasted than the rest of them, "Coulson, initiate official lock down in the detention section then get to the armory! Move out!"
Link nodded and ushered them out of the room, Steve and Tony were already moving away on their own and, by the way they moved together, had reached some kind of unspoken understanding. Hopefully their bickering was a thing of the past. Link hated to have called them out like he did. He believed what he'd said but it wasn't really his place to call them down.
Everyone they met on the way was practically panicking with disorientation, but it wasn't a great distance to the bridge, thankfully, and as soon as the Director and Vice-Director were back on the bridge, they began reasserting discipline and started gathering information.
"Engine 3 is down!" someone yelled out.
Hill ran over to him, "Talk to me!"
"Turbine's loose. Mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there and make repairs while we're in the air," he said.
"We lose one more engine, we won't be," Hill noted.
"Stark, you copy that?" Fury asked through the intercom.
Link heard the reply through Fury's earpiece even though he didn't have his own: "I'm on it!"
Fury and Hill continued, well, directing the bridge while Link scanned his mind for everything he'd realized about Loki's intentions. He still felt like he was missing pieces of the puzzle but... a roar shook the entire Helicarrier from somewhere deeper in it's construction. Fury, Hill, and Link all looked at each other with terrible realization. They'd forgotten Banner, and that explosion had set him off.
"Give me an intercom!" Link shouted, he had no idea how he was going to fight The Hulk of all monsters, but he wasn't left with much choice.
"Bring the carrier inwards and head south!" Fury shouted at the helmsman, "Take us to the water!"
A agent brought his ear piece over to Link and showed him how to operate it while the conversation continued: "Why water?" the helmsman asked, "Navigation's recalibrating after the engine failure."
"Is the SUN COMING UP?" Fury asked.
The poor helmsman checked, then nodded.
"Then put it on the LEFT! Get us over water! One more engine goes down and we drop!"
Link finished putting his ear piece in, then dashed up to the Director, "Where's Banner now? I'll try and stop him."
Fury nodded and started getting camera's checked for him. In only a few moments they found Thor and Hulk fighting in a hanger, "We need a full evac on the lower hanger bay!"
Hill nodded and prepared to leave but Link, whose senses were on red alert, heard something surprisingly distinct: a grenade pin. He spun and saw the item already flying low to the ground towards Hill. He reacted instantly, however, and pulled his boomerang from his pack and threw it at the grenade. It crashed into the little canister and ricocheted it back to sender. It exploded well before it got that far, but much farther away from Agent Hill than it would have done.
Several agents pulled their weapons immediately, but Link wasn't planning on letting this become a firefight. He caught his boomerang on it's back arc, switched it for his Ice Rod and sealed the entrance the grenade had come from with six feet of magical ice. He knew better than to seal off all their exits, however, and again switched his item out, this time for something he hadn't used in front of any Shield agent: a magic whip. With whip in one hand and his Mirror Shield on the other arm, he turned to the only other entrance to the bridge.
"Link!" Hill shouted and when he turned back to her she continued, "What are you doing?"
"Keeping the fight off the bridge," he said, "I hope you've got a lot more holding cells."
With his shield up and his whip raised, he went to battle with Loki's human allies.
Even though he'd been filled in on Dr. Banner's condition, Thor had not been expecting such a challenging opponent in the Hulk. At first, he'd tried to reason with him, but it soon became clear was wasn't listening to anything, so instead Thor had opted for option 1: hammer.
Unfortunately, option 1 was far less effective on The Hulk than it had ever been on anything Thor had ever met in his life. He'd trained with and even fought other gods before, and he had a general sense that his father, Odin, was far more powerful than he was, even in his old age, but when he hit something with Mjolnir he still expected it to get hurt, if not instantly die. All he'd managed so far was to make The Hulk even more angry.
Well, there was one other thing. Somehow, this monster was actually getting stronger. Thor had been surprised enough by Stark's flying metal suit, which had, barely, allowed him to trade blows. The fight wouldn't have lasted much longer, of course, but it was an impressive design. Then the one called Captain Rogers had fully repelled his blow with that incredible shield. He'd been informed, however, of the metal's truly unbelievable qualities, and he no longer felt genuinely matched by the man.
The boy called Link was still mostly a unknown to him, though he'd heard from Captain Rogers that the child had somehow knocked Loki unconscious, he hadn't had a chance to see his power for himself. He'd have to correct that later, but he seriously doubted the possibility that Link could stand up to Thor: God of Thunder and Lightning. The Hulk was a whole other game. At the battle's beginning, Thor had been able to match the brute's raw strength with ease. Combined with his martial prowess honed over literal millennia, he'd had control of the fight for a good while.
Somehow, The Hulk had turned the tables on him, and Thor wasn't happy about it. Beyond that, there were still people around them, and despite their lack of strength, he considered Shield and each of it's members, allies. Especially Agent Coulson.
Thor summoned his hammer back to his hand and tried to strike The Hulk's head, but the monster had apparently wizened up to Mjolnir's basic tricks and he struck Thor in the forearm and forced him to let go of the enchanted weapon. Frustrated by his inability to make use of his more godly abilities, Thor delivered a series of rapid punches to the monster, who took them far better than he had even a few moments prior and grabbed Thor by the neck.
Thor's eye's widened as he realized the beast's intention to crush one of the softer parts of his body but returned the earlier favor by attacking the forearms and forcing a release of grip. They continued traded blows for a short amount of time when, suddenly, the hangar door opened and a single-man flying ship appeared and, after only a few seconds of delay, opened fire on The Hulk. Thor dived for cover, unwilling to test his bare skin against anything that big that could fire so fast. The Hulk, on the other hand, appeared only to have his focus shifted from Thor to the aircraft.
He launched himself at the offending party, who immediately careened out-of-control, spinning away from the Helicarrier. Thor could only presume this was the intended effect and be grateful he didn't have to face The Hulk anymore in such unfavorable circumstances. At any rate, he wasn't on the Helicarrier anymore, and there were more concerns Thor had to deal with. He might not know much about Link's capacity as a fighter, but he certainly felt the child had been right about basically everything he'd said. That included his guess as to Loki's plan. Thor left for Loki's cage, hoping against hope he wasn't too late.
Link snapped his whip and cracked a fake Shield agent on the helmet. Even unarmored, the man would've been fine. The whip wasn't dangerous, though Link suspected it delivered a heck of a sting, and was the perfect tool for a fight where Link didn't want to kill anyone. All he was after was disorienting his enemies enough to get in close. He was easily fast enough to block bullets with his shield, but the less he had to do so, the faster he could move.
He jumped at the poor guy and knocked him flat, then he spun his shield into the next two guys standing nearby. He was actually surprised by the number of enemies he'd had to take down, how had Agent Barton pulled this off? Satisfied that his current opponents were unconscious, Link moved on, listening intently for signs of more enemies.
The next set of were around the corner, coming up quickly. He lifted his Ice Rod, he's been using the whip, boomerang, shield, and Ice Rod interchangeably throughout the battle as they were the easiest to keep from accidentally killing the fragile humans. Here, he waited for the right instant, and sprang around the corner and froze the floor over. The agents reacted quickly, and raised their weapons to fire but, when the first one tripped and fell, he brought the entire squad down with him, and Link walked easily up to them to knock them out.
Just then, he felt the entire Helicarrier lurch and he nearly lost his footing. His enemies, who where busy trying to stand back up, fared far worse, however, and accidentally fired some rounds into their own. Link saw blood begin to pool underneath them.
"It's Barton!" Fury said over the intercom, "He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anyone copy?"
Link rushed for the men and examined their wounds as his earpiece responded, "This is Agent Romanov. I copy."
Her voice sounded shaky, but Link didn't have time for that. None of the injuries were life-threatening unless left completely alone, somehow, so he reached up and tapped the comm as he'd been shown: "This is Link. I'm pretty sure I've taken out all the guys coming for the bridge. They are wearing Shield uniforms, some are badly injured. Heading for the detention level now."
As he ran his earpiece kept relaying messages.
"Stark, we're losing altitude!"
"Yeah, noticed!"
Just as Thor reached Loki's cage, he saw the door opening to let Loki go.
"No!" he shouted, hurling himself at his brother.
Loki reacted to the assault, crouching to brace for the tackle, but Thor flew right through the illusion and into the glass prison. Standing up, already annoyed at himself, he saw the door close again, sealing him in.
"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki asked.
Angry, Thor slammed his hammer into the glass door, which cracked, but did not shatter, as he'd expected. About half the restraints on the cage unclamped themselves instantly, and suddenly Thor remembered who this cage had been made for, and how it worked.
Loki smiled and walked over to the control panel, "The humans think us immortal. Shall we test that?"
He started to enact the machine, but the sudden collapse of the man who'd come down here to release him took both god's attentions.
Agent Coulson stood over the unconscious man holding a truly large gun, "Move away please," he said.
Loki warily backed away from the panel of buttons.
"You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent The Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?" the friendly agent asked.
Suddenly he gasped as a blade rammed through his chest, right where his heart would be.
"NO!" Thor thundered in anger as his near-friend slumped to the ground.
Loki calmly walked over to the control panel, pressed a button, and Thor's prison dropped. Suddenly, it stopped dead and Thor crashed to the current bottom on the containment. He looked up through the glass to see Link leaning over the edge of the hole in the Helicarrier, holding the cage with some kind chain stabbed into the glass directly above Thor. For him to be able to hold this whole thing up without tipping over, Link's strength must be immense...
The warrior did even better though, and started dragging the cage back up by hauling his chain up, hand by hand. Thor stopped waiting around to be saved, though, and began spinning Mjolnir before launching himself through the weakened glass and back up to the Helicarrier. He flew up into the flying boat just in time to see Loki blasted away from Link by Coulson's big gun. Link's chain came back to him and he turned with Thor to get eyes on Loki.
Loki groaned but stood up quickly and, unfortunately, he'd landed near the exit. He ran for it and Thor was tempted to follow, but he noticed Link heading back for Coulson. Thor wavered a moment but it would be Coulson's final moments. He should have people, plural, there with him at the end.
Link was apparently busy checking the mortal wound, but Coulson was trying to say something.
"Get... Loki... face him... together," the dying man said, "Don't let him destroy my world."
"You're not going to die," Link said, and Thor looked at him, confused. Even an Asgardian would die from a wound this severe and only human medicine to help. Link, however, pulled a vial of something from the pouch at his waist and uncorked it, "Drink this," he commanded.
Bewildered, Thor watched as Link poured the liquid down Coulson's throat. The man gasped and coughed a moment but his breathing stabilized. Impossibly, the wound closed up entirely and the color came back into the man's face.
After a moment, Coulson shook his head, "What...?"
Link smiled, flipping the empty vial in his hand before putting it away, "Red Potion. You'd probably call it a healing potion, but the word translates better as 'red'. As long as you aren't dead yet, it can save you."
"That's... impossible!" Thor said, even though he'd just seen it.
"How much does your people know of mine?" the wonderful man asked.
"Your people? Humans?" Thor asked.
"Hylians," Link replied, and Thor's eyes widened in total shock.
A lot could happen in thirty minutes. The entire attack hadn't even lasted that long, and the amount of damage Agent Barton had managed to do was surprising. After saving Agent Coulson, Link had gone with Thor to try and catch Loki, but they never caught up with him. Link had kept his Lens of Truth on the entire search, just in case, but it had proved fruitless and now he was running very low on magic. If he didn't find a way to replenish that soon: his arsenal would shrink drastically.
Eventually, they'd heard that Agent Barton had been knocked out and contained by Agent Romanov, and that Loki was no longer on the Helicarrier. Steve and Stark had managed to get the destroyed turbine running again, and the Shield Agents had managed to descramble their systems enough to turn the other back on. Banner was who-knew-where, Shield's communications were down among other issues and had no news of the outside world, the lab where the information regarding the whereabouts of The Tesseract had been destroyed in the attack, and Stark's Iron Man armor had taken severe damage.
Link sat at the main table on the bridge along with Thor, Steve, and Stark. Agent Romanov was with Barton, Link wasn't sure why he hadn't picked up on it but those two were apparently very good friends. The mood was dour, the losses they'd taken weighing down on them. The main problem was that nobody knew what to do next. With the lab destroyed, all they could do was wait for Loki to open the portal and react to that.
"I lost my one good eye," Fury was saying, but Link wasn't listening.
He knew everyone was thinking about the same things, that the silver linings weren't holding up to the losses they'd suffered, that they needed to find some way of knowing where the portal would be opened before it was, and that their ability to fight an alien army was heavily diminished.
Based on prior experience, Link would be able to sense the portal once it was open, but by then it would almost be impossible to get there in time. They couldn't afford to let that army form ranks.
"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract," Fury said, "I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something… even riskier."
Link's ears perked up, wondering what move the Director had left.
"There was an idea, Stark knows this and Link… you picked up on it, called 'The Avengers Initiative'. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something greater. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could."
"Well that's what Link was saying, wasn't he?" Stark interjected, "You can't control us, so you need to trust us. We're not soldiers, but we can be heroes."
"That becomes a problem when the people in question are people like you, Stark," Steve said, "Some of us have been soldiers long enough to know the difference between when to act on our own and when to follow orders. Heroes aren't heroes unless people believe in them, who do you think believes in us?"
"I do," Coulson said, immediately. Steve turned to counter but stopped when he saw the obvious blood-stain on the agent's shirt and jacket. It clearly gave him pause.
"So do I," Agent Hill said, and Link saw she was looking directly at him. He read admiration in her eyes. When had that happened? He nodded his thanks to her anyway.
"Captain," Link said, a plan finally forming in his mind, "We can still save this world but it has to be we. Fury's right, we have to work together," he tuned to Stark, "All of us."
"I will be proud to fight alongside you, Link," Thor said, and Link nodded appreciatively.
"We still don't know where to go," Steve said.
"Why do you think Loki hit us here?" Link asked, "Right where all his only threats gather he walked right in and slapped us across the face, why?"
"He made it personal," Stark said, realizing what Link had only moments ago.
"I don't think that's Link's point…"
"It is the point, it's Loki's point. He hit us all right where it hurts… why?"
"To tear us apart?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great and all but… he knows he has to beat US to win, right? That's what he wants!"
"Right," Steve said, catching on, "So where can he get both an audience and a power source?"
"A… capital city of some kind?" Thor offered.
"Yeah…" Stark said, pointing at Thor, "Somewhere he can beat us and be seen doing it, he wants the world's best to stand up to him and fall at his feet."
"He thinks he's a god and he wants the world to see him the same way," Link said, continuing the line of thought, they'd already gotten past what he'd been able to work out for himself but the train of logic was easy to follow.
"Exactly," Stark agreed, "He wants an altar, or… a monument built to the skies with his name plastered on it—" he stopped short for a moment where they all realized the truth. "Son of a—" Stark swore.
Some time later, they'd been delayed by waiting on Stark needing to fix his armor, Steve walked into the room Agent Romanov was watching Barton in, Thor had been sent to find Banner, if possible, to bring to New York City and Link was securing a Quinjet for use.
"Time to go," Steve said.
"Go where?" the Black Widow asked.
"I'll tell you on the way, can you fly one of those jets?"
"I can," a new voice said, and Steve turned to see Agent Barton returning from a bathroom, apparently washing up.
Steve looked a question to Romanov, who nodded, "You got a suit?" he asked the Agent.
"Yeah."
"Then suit up."
Maria turned to see Link return to the bridge and toss a really big gun to Agent Coulson, who barely caught it, "You're gonna want that."
"I can't come," Phil protested, "I've got… stuff here," he gestured around.
"You saved my life with that weapon," Link said, and Hill raised her eyebrows in surprise, "You're one of us, now go get yourself a new suit, Avenger."
Coulson looked shocked for a moment, but recovered quickly, and dashed off the bridge, giant experimental gun in tow. Link turned to go, and Maria felt a ping of jealousy, she'd known Link for years, but about 24 hours on this boat and Link added Coulson to the self-forming Avengers instead of her? She understood, really she did. Coulson was a better fit. He didn't know it, but Director Fury had actually put him on his list of people he wanted as Avengers. More than that, well, he'd fought Loki, and he and Link had saved each other from the god. It was fitting. She just wished she could go too, even if she knew she shouldn't. Her duty was here. She could do far more good here than in some firefight.
Link watched Captain America, The Black Widow, Agent Barton?, and Agent Phil Couslon come up to the Quinjet he'd commandeered with a smile on his face, though, they'd really have think of a title for Coulson. Maybe… Agent Shield? No that didn't work, eh someone would come up with something. Anyway, some Shield Agent tried to stand in their way for a moment. Link hadn't been challenged, for some reason, and was surprised to see them be stopped, but Steve said something and the agent gave up pretty quickly.
In a moment they were taking off, Agent Barton flying, apparently Natasha had fully cured him of the mind control.
"So, they're using Stark Tower as their power source?" Romanov asked.
"Seems likely," Link said, "Are we sure Barton is fine now? Could he be faking? I don't sense any magic on him but that's not proof, none of the men who attacked the Helicarrier did."
"He's clear," Agent Romanov said, and Link found he trusted her.
"He's Hawkeye again," Coulson said, and when Link gave him a questioning look he explained, "That's what he was called before Shield. He wasn't a bad guy then, just insanely talented and skilled. Hawkeye makes a great superhero name, right?"
Link nodded, but apparently Coulson wasn't really done, "What about you, Link? You ever have a cool hero name in your time?"
"Uh…" Link said, "Well… I suppose, but each time I reincarnated I got a new one so… it feels wrong to use one of them. But I had a lot of them, because of that: The Hero of Time, The Hero of Winds, The Hero of Twilight, The Hero of the Wild, it kinda just depended on what specific skills I had to learn in that incarnation, really."
"Hmm…" Coulson seemed to consider this for a bit, "So, you're a Hylian, right? That's what your people called themselves?"
Link nodded.
"Ok, how about… Hyrule Warrior?"
"Been that one before, actually."
"Ok… how about… Monster Hunter?"
"Isn't that a video game series?" Link asked.
"Relic Hunter?" Coulson amended.
"Hey, that works," Natasha said.
Link groaned, already knowing he wasn't getting away from that title.