The Perfect One

by choejhulkp9

SHIELD. The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division protects the world from a much weirder one. But they soon meet someone with a unique ability set that makes him a force of nature. One of Earth's mightiest heroes will turn into its last hope from total annihilation. You don't mess with Inhuman perfection.

5. Avengers Assemble

Here is Chapter 5. An attack from an Asgardian named Loki makes Fury believe that what he's feared for years has finally come to pass. And while the World Security Council threw out the Avenger Initiative, they might be the world's only hope. But when you put those kinds of people together, egos and ideals clash. The Avengers are a great idea, but some assembly is required. Geez, what did Will agree to. It's like listening to a bunch of four year olds argue…and not in the funny, comedic kind of way. Enjoy! Also, spoilers for Captain Marvel if you have not seen it. I warned you.

If I never said it before, God Bless Stan Lee and may he rest in peace. The world is a sadder place without him. His legacy will live on and he will never be forgotten.

The Perfect One: Avengers Assemble

Central American Airspace: May 2012

After Will's little alien civil war that he broke up, he stayed at the Triskelion for a bit longer to fill out the file on the Predator and the Xenomorphs. He included everything from their language and the information about their species so SHIELD would have everything incase they came back. They analyzed the weapons Will brought back from Antarctica and they were made up of typical elements like some kind of refined silicate material, indicating that the Predators had their own version of iron and steel but a lot more refined. There were also metals that were alien to planet earth, obviously. But they were lightweight, as durable of Vibranium and the sharpest metal they've ever recorded.

The weapon/artifact from the pyramid turned out to be some kind of energy weapon. It had some kind of internal battery more powerful than anything on earth that size and could create pure plasma and easily be one of the most destructive weapons if in the wrong hands. The plasma caster was staying in a SHIELD lab under the direct supervision of Agent Weyland who was in charge of the research team overlooking the weapon. Even though Will knew how the weapon worked, he was kind of vague with the team because he felt that the world wasn't ready for that kind of weapon. But on the plus side, Fury let him keep the weapons he got from Antarctica. So, yeah.

One thing that SHIELD was working on was the stealth tech from the Predator computer Will got on the mission. It was a lot more complex than the stealth tech they had on the Quinjets and Helicarrier as it was powerful and small enough for a single person to use but it wasn't perfect as it wasn't heat sensor proof and was fickle if wet or hit but was a good step forward. Will sent a copy of the information on the tech to Tony to see if he could rig up something for Will but time would tell. After staying at the Triskelion for longer than he anticipated, he met back up with Captain Rogers. He used that time to help Rogers get a little more adjusted to his new world and had a rare time to train with the only other Super Soldier in the world. He also used that time to check on his own personal things like his bank account, which was doing very nicely because of some investments in Stark Industries. Will was essentially sent for two lifetimes. He made some donations to various charity organizations, including the shelter back home along with Red Cross and St. Jude's, along with helping to pay for his cousin's college fund and whatever else his family needed help with.

At the moment Will had just finished tracking down a lead on a new group he had gotten whispers that were responsible for certain incidents, deaths, assassinations, and attacks all over the world in the last few years. Most of them were considered accidents but Will began to see something as these accidents led to another event of escalating destruction and the way they occurred made him think very skilled people were responsible. Possibly former special forces but something was going on and he only got a name so far…the Syndicate.

He was on his way to Florida to dig up another lead and called for a quinjet transport there. Will was sitting in one of the seats in the quinjet dressed in his Aegis Combat gear and getting some much-needed rest. He seemed to be doing fine when all of a sudden, his body flickered blue which meant his powers activated in response to something and Will's dream turned odd.

He appeared in some kind of dark space and felt cold and scared. He looked around and saw floating rocks and some kind of platform leading to a chair. Will then saw a sun and planets in the distance…he was in space. Will walked forward along the platform and in the distance saw two figures too far away to see clearly but one seemed to be human the other was blue. He handed the human some kind of weird scepter with a glowing blue gem in the blade. The figure then disappeared, and the blue alien was kneeling before a larger purple one in gold armor.

"The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world…a human world. They wield its power, but our ally knows it's working like they never will. He's ready to lead. And our force…our Chitauri will follow."The alien spoke as Will heard weird animalistic shouting coming from far away and saw an army of aliens…at least a million strong if not more.

"The world will be his…the universe…yours. And the humans…what can they do but burn?"The alien spoke, and the purple aliened turned and Will could have sworn he saw him looking straight at him and smirk.

Will shot up from his nap, his breathing labored and heavy as he reeled from what he just saw. "Jesus Christ." Will wiped his forehead and saw he was covered in sweat.

"Everything ok, sir?" The pilot asked as Will looked down at his hands which were still glowing blue.

"No." Will said as he unbuckled his harness and walked up to the pilot. "Change in course. Take us to the Triskelion!"

"Yes, sir. Can I ask why the change in course?!" The pilot asked as he turned the plane to head for Washington D.C.

"An invasion." Will told him.

Project Pegasus, Joint Dark Energy Station/Western Division: Mojave Desert

Project Pegasus was a top-secret SHIELD operation formed on the orders of the World Security Council to investigate phenomena of non-human origin. A joint force between SHIELD and NASA to investigate anything extraterrestrial and devise counter measures for any threats that come from beyond the planet. The Project was super-secret and only select scientists and soldiers were aware of the project's existence and even then, the list of people who actually knew what the project was for is even smaller. At the moment, an alarm was going off through the facility as all SHIELD and NASA personnel were being ordered to evacuate for their own safety.

All the scientists and facility staff were being put into transport vans and vehicles as the SHIELD security personnel helped keep order and made sure everything was going according to schedule. One SHIELD helicopter wasn't leaving but arriving on the helipad where Agent Coulson was waiting. The helicopter landed as Deputy Director Hill and Director Fury disembarked and walked over to Coulson, seeing the controlled chaos of the facility evacuation.

"How bad is it?!" Fury asked.

"That's the problem, sir! We don't know!" Coulson told them as they walked into the main research building and took an elevator down to the Tesseract chamber. "Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."

"I didn't authorize Selvig to go to the test phase." Fury replied.

"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. It was a spontaneous event." Coulson told them.

"It just turned itself on?" Hill asked.

"Where are the energy levels now?" Fury asked.

"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered the evac." Coulson informed him.

"How long until you get everyone out?" Fury asked.

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour." Coulson told him.

"Do better." Fury ordered as Coulson nodded and got to work while Fury and Hill continued to the Tesseract Chamber.

"Sir, evacuation may be futile." Hill told him.

"So, we should just tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury asked.

"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, then there might not be a minimum safe distance." Hill said.

"I need you to make sure the phase 2 prototypes are shipped out." Fury told her as Hill was confused.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Hill asked as Fury stopped to look at her.

"Until such a time as the world ends, we will act as it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 in a truck and gone." Fury told her as she reluctantly nodded.

"Yes sir." Hill said as she had two SHIELD guards come with her.

Fury entered the Tesseract chamber to see Selvig and his team of scientists busy at work to try and figure out what caused the Tesseract to react and how to shut it down. Their SHIELD guards were standing at attention as Fury walked in.

"Talk to me, Doctor!" Fury said as Selvig saw Fury enter.

"Director!" Selvig walked away from the Tesseract and the device it was attached to and walked over to Fury.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving." Selvig told him.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury asked.

"It's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's…behaving." Selvig told him as they walked over to his work station.

"I assume you pulled the plug." Fury told him.

"She's an energy source. We turn off the power she turns it back on." Selvig told him. "If she reaches peak level…"

"We prepared for this, Doctor. To harness energy from space." Fury said.

"Except we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. She's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, just low levels of Gamma radiation." Selvig said as Fury looked at him.

"That can be harmful. Where's Agent Barton?" Fury asked as Selvig chuckled.

"The Hawk? Up in his nest as usual." Selvig pointed up and Fury saw Barton on the walkway above the room, keeping a birds eye view on everything.

"Agent Barton, report!" Fury said as Barton rappelled down and walked up to the Director. "I gave you this detail, so you could keep a close eye on things."

"Well, I see better from a distance." Barton said as they walked over to the Tesseract.

"Have you seen anything that would set this thing off?" Fury asked as Selvig was called over by one of his assistants because she was reading an energy surge from the Tesseract.

"No one's come or gone and Selvig's clean. No contacts and IM." Barton said as they looked at the Tesseract. "If there's any tampering sir, it wasn't at this end."

Fury then looked at him. "At this end?"

"Yeah. The cube is supposed to be a doorway to the other end of space, right? Well doors open from both sides." Barton said.

Selvig and his team couldn't seem to figure out what was causing the Tesseract to react in this way but all of that was put to the back of their minds when the Tesseract flashed up and released a shockwave of force that shook the entire campus. The Tesseract continued to flare up with energy as the rumbling continued and seemed to get more intense. All of a sudden, the energy of the Tesseract funneled through the containment device and shot out a beam of energy into the containment field that Selvig and his team designed. The beam of energy formed some kind of portal which opened for about 5 seconds before collapsing in on itself. When the portal collapsed, the energy dispersed and then pooled back together on the ceiling.

Everyone was wondering what the hell happened when the smoke around the containment field dissipated and they saw someone kneeling where the portal used to be. They looked and saw it was some man dressed in a weird green garb and was carrying some kind of spear with a blue gem in it. The SHIELD security team moved forward, weapons ready for a fight as the figure stood to his feet.

"Sir, please put down the spear!" Fury shouted as the man just looked at it before he pointed it at Fury and fired a beam of energy. Barton pushed Fury out of the way and the energy beam smashed through a computer bank. The SHIELD team opened fire as the mystery man charged forward, the bullets bouncing off his clothes. The mystery man impaled the nearest SHIELD soldier with his spear. He then threw two knives and killed two more SHIELD soldiers before firing a beam and killing a few scientists. He slashed another SHIELD agent across the face as Barton and the others opened fire, shooting him in the head but the only thing it seemed to do was piss him off. The man fired another beam as Barton rolled out of the way and an unlucky agent got hit.

The man stood there as he looked at the carnage he created. He walked up to Barton who turned to shoot him, but he grabbed his arm and twisted it. "You have heart." He said to Barton and touched the spear to his chest. The energy from the stone seemed to seep into Barton's body and course through his veins and up into his eyes, turning them white and light blue. The man removed the staff as Barton relaxed and holstered his sidearm.

Fury watch this happen, wondering how this was possible and who this man was. He quickly took the Tesseract out of the containment device and put it into a special briefcase and got up to leave.

"Please don't." The man said, having finished turning another agent like Barton. "I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury told him.

"Of course, it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki…of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose." Loki said.

"Loki? Brother of Thor!" Selvig said, knowing who he was.

"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury told him.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki replied.

"You planning to step on us?" Fury asked.

"I come with glad tidings…of a world made free." Loki said as he walked a little.

"Free from what?" Fury asked.

"Freedom." Loki told him. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki touched the scepter to Selvig's chest and turned him as well. "you will know peace."

"Yeah, you say peace, but I kind of think you mean the other thing." Fury said.

"Sir." Barton walked over to Loki. "Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like the pharaohs of old." Fury told him.

"He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself. We have maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Selvig said, reading off the data from the computer.

"Well then." Loki looked at Barton who shot Fury in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Barton walked forward and grabbed the case as they made their way out of the Tesseract room. They walked into the cargo area as Hill was there supervising the last of the Phase 2 transport.

"We need these vehicles." Barton said and walked past her. Selvig walked over to the car and got into the passenger seat as Loki got in the back.

"Who's that?" Hill asked, seeing Loki.

"He didn't tell me." Barton said to her.

Hill was confused as she turned around and went to finish her work. "Hill! Do you copy?!" Fury radioed, having survived the gunshot thanks to a bulletproof vest. "Barton's been turned!"

Hill rolled forward and took cover behind a crate as Barton fired at her. He quickly got into the truck as the other turned agent got into the car and drove away. Hill fired at them but missed the tires.

"They have the Tesseract! Shut them down!" Fury radioed as Hill quickly got into a car and chased after them. Other Agents arrived to help her and drove after Loki. Barton drove the truck through the tunnel, going fast and swerving through the pillars, road barriers and other cars with Hill and the other agents chasing after them.

Loki stood up in the back of the pickup truck and fired at the chasing cars with his scepter. One of his beams destroyed a chasing sedan that swerved and flipped onto it's roof, causing a roadblock. The Tesseract energy in the chamber had gone critical as Fury hurried to escape and Coulson got the last agents evacuated. Hill had taken a different tunnel and drifted in front of Barton and Loki. She pulled the handbrake, did a 180 reverse turn and pitted Barton from the front. She and Barton fired at each other until her clip was empty. Barton sped forward and pushed her aside, so she quickly did another 180 spin and drove alongside him. The tunnels began collapsing as Hill hit the accelerator, not wanting to be buried but some debris forced her to stop and she got stuck under the crumbling roof.

Barton drove out of the tunnel when Fury's helicopter flew above them. Barton turned and drove off road as Fury's copter hovered alongside them. Fury fired his gun and hit the windshield of the truck but missed. Loki fired an energy beam at the helicopter blades and sent it careening to the ground. Fury jumped out before the helicopter crashed, alive and intact but Barton and Loki drove away with the Tesseract.

"Director! Director Fury, do you copy?" Coulson radioed in.

"The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?" Fury radioed.

"A lot of men still under. Don't know how many survivors." Hill told him.

"Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase." Fury told her.

"Roger that." She replied.

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level 7. As of right now…we are at war." Fury told him.

"What do we do?" Coulson asked as Fury thought for a moment before he made his decision.

"Assemble the Avengers." Fury ordered.

Line Break xxxxx

Triskelion, Washington DC

Will arrived at the base and saw it was bustling with activity…his instinct was right. Something was going on. He moved through the compound and made his way to the main briefing room where he saw dozens of analysts and technicians moving back and forth, hard at work and following orders. Will walked past all of them and made his way over to Coulson who was in charge while Fury was busy with something.

"Coulson." Will called as Coulson turned and surprised to see him there.

"Will. I thought you were headed to Florida. We were just about to collect you." Coulson told him.

"Change in course and I'm guessing it was the right call. What happened?" He asked as he and Coulson walked through the room.

"Approximately 4 hours ago, one of our research facilities were compromised." Coulson said and he handed Will a tablet with all the information.

"The Tesseract?" Will asked.

"A cube of unknown origin and immense power. First used by the Red Skull during World War 2 and fished out of the Artic by Howard Stark. An Asgardian somehow teleported in and stole it." Coulson told him.

"How dangerous is this thing?" Will asked.

"A small amount of its energy caused an entire research campus to collapse in on itself. If this is left in the wrong hands, the entire planet could be at risk." Coulson told him.

"Just another day in the life of SHIELD. Who took it?" Will asked as the tablet changed to reveal a camera stilled image of Loki.

"His name is Loki, an Asgardian." Coulson told him.

"Like Thor?" Will asked as Coulson nodded. "Great. Under threat of global annihilation by the Norse God of Mischief using an old Nazi superweapon. How many casualties?"

"Only a dozen. Triple that for injured. And two compromised. Dr. Selvig and Barton." Coulson said as Will looked at him.

"How?" Will asked, concerned for his friend.

"Loki's scepter somehow swayed him." Coulson told him.

"Jesus. We've got to find him and bring him back." Will told Coulson.

"And we will. We've already got facial recognition working on finding them, but it'll take some time. Barton knows how we operate but we won't stop until we find him." Coulson said. "Do you think you can reverse whatever Loki did to him?"

"I won't know until I try, and I won't stop until it works. It's the least I owe Barton and I still owe him more." Will told him as Coulson nodded. "Does Laura know?"

Coulson shook his head no. "I don't want to be the one to tell her." Coulson replied.

"So, what's Fury plan?" Will asked.

"The Avengers. We're bringing them in." Coulson told him.

"I thought the Avengers initiative was shut down?" Will asked as Coulson handed him a cellphone and a tablet.

"Not anymore. Contact Romanoff. You two are getting Banner in Kolkata. He can track down the Cube." Coulson told him as he walked away.

"And where are you going?" Will asked.

"To get Stark." Coulson said as Will sighed.

"Sure, leave me with the hard stuff." Will said to himself as he dialed Romanoff's number. He waited, listening to the dial tone and a satellite overview image of the warehouse she was in on the tablet Coulson gave him.

Romanoff was on mission extracting information from General Georgi Luchkov of the Russian Armed forces. She was captured and being interrogated at his smuggling warehouse, but it was actually part of her plan. One of Georgi's men slapped her across the face but she remained calm and collected.

"This is not how I wanted this evening to go." Georgi spoke to her in Russian.

"I know how you wanted this evening to go. Believe me, this is better." Romanoff replied.

"Who are you working for? Lermentov, yes?" Georgi asked as he had one of his men push her chair back, dangling it near a hole in the floor that would send her flying down three stories if he let go. "Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?"

"I thought General Solohob is in charge of the export business." Romanoff said.

"Solohob? A bagman, a front. Your outdated information betrays you. The famous Black Widow and she turns out to be simply another pretty face." Georgi said.

"You really think I'm pretty?" Romanoff asked as Georgi nodded to one of his men who grabbed Romanoff's head and held her mouth open.

"Tell Lermentov we don't need him to move the tanks. Tell him he is out. Well…" Georgi walked over to a table and picked up a pair of plyers. "you may have to write it down."

A phone then went off as Georgi reached into his pocket and saw it was Romanoff's phone that was ringing. "It's for her." He said as Georgi took the phone and answered it.

"You listen carefully—" "You and your two men are currently at 1-14 Silensky Plaza, third floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out and failing that we have a trained sniper on your position. Put the woman on the phone now or you won't live long enough to realize what a big mistake you've just made." Will told him as he watched over Satellite feed.

Georgi walked over and put the phone on to her face. "Hey, Romanoff, how's your evening going?" Will asked.

"I'm kind of busy at the moment, what is it?" She asked.

"You need to come in." Will told her.

"Are you kidding, I'm working." She told him.

"This takes precedence. Level 7 Situation." He told her.

"Can't it wait a few minutes. I'm in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything." Romanoff said.

"I don't give everything." Georgi said as Romanoff gave him a look.

"Look, you can't pull me off this right now." Romanoff said.

"Natasha…It's Barton. He's been compromised." Will told her as she got serious.

"Let me put you on hold." She said as Georgi took the phone when she kicked out his knee and headbutted him in the face. She got to her feet and kicked one of Georgi's men before ducking and hitting the other with the chair. She rolled on the ground and slammed the chair on his foot before slamming the back of her head in his nose. She sweeped out his legs and then kicked the other guy back before flipping through the air and slamming on the guy on the floor, breaking her chair and freeing herself. Will listened to the sound of fighting and grunting and knew that those guys are in for trouble.

Romanoff got back to her feet when Georgi's other man grabbed her from behind. Romanoff grabbed his fingers and broke them, causing him to shout in pain and let her go. She elbowed him in the gut and punched him across the face before doing a drop kick and knocking him back. She flipped back to her feet, charged at him and did a head scissor throw, knocking him out. Romanoff walked over and grabbed a chain and wrapped it around Georgi's leg before pushing down the hole she was dangle over a few minutes ago. She walked over and grabbed her shoes and her phone.

"I'm back. Where's Barton now?" Romanoff asked.

"We're not sure. He's gone off the grid. The person we're after somehow swayed his mind." Will told her.

"But he's alive?" Romanoff asked.

"Most likely. Whoever swayed him and Dr. Selvig needs them. I'll brief you fully when we meet. Take your transport and head to Kolkata. We need to get Dr. Banner." Will said as he walked over to the transport bay to get a quinjet.

Romanoff heard what he said and paused for a second. "Oh crap." She said in Russian.

Kolkata, India

The city of Kolkata was a bustling metropolis that had seen better days and was literally jampacked with people that if you were claustrophobic, you'd be in trouble. A little girl with some money in her hands was running as fast as he could through the city, rushing past adults to get somewhere. She then ran into a building and up the stairs to see a family in their home with a foreigner using the sink to clean himself up…this was Dr. Bruce Banner.

The mother saw the little girl and tried to usher her out. "What are you doing here?! Get out! There is sickness!" She told the girl.

"You're a doctor. My father's not waking up! He has a fever and he's moaning but his eyes won't open!" She shouted as Dr. Banner walked over.

"Slow down." He told her.

"My father…" The girl said as she looked at the sick child on the bed being tended to by his father.

"Like them?" Banner asked as the girl held up the money she had.

"Please." She begged him as he nodded. He grabbed his bag and followed her. He followed her to an isolated shack on the outskirts of the city. He had her stop and he turned his head as a police jeep drove by because he didn't want any trouble. When they were gone, he followed the girl into the shack. She ran into the back bedroom and he was ready to help when he saw the girl climb out the window and run away. He had been duped.

"[Sighs] You should've got paid up front, Banner." He said to himself.

"Eh, don't blame yourself. Anyone would have done the same thing. Something about cute kids makes adults drop their guard." Banner heard as Will and Romanoff stepped out into the living room, so Banner could see them. They were both dressed in regular clothing and Will had a file under his arm.

"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress you picked a hell of a place to settle." Romanoff said as Banner put his bag down.

"Avoiding stress isn't the secret." Banner replied.

"Then what is it? Yoga?" Romanoff asked.

"I sure hope not. I'm not that bendy. Which is ironic considering what I can do." Will said to try and lighten the mood.

"You brought me to the edge of the city. Smart. I assume the whole place is surrounded." Banner said.

"Nope. Just us." Romanoff said as she looked at Will. "Trust me, he's all the backup I need."

"Please, you're my backup." Will told her.

"And your actress buddy? Is she a spy, too? They start that young?" Banner asked.

"I did." Romanoff said.

"She's just a young girl who needed the extra money to help her family." Will told him.

"Who are you people?" Banner asked.

"My name is Natasha Romanoff. My friend here who's been trying to lighten the mood is Will Detmer." Romanoff said.

"Are you here to kill me, Ms. Romanoff. Because that's not going to work out for everyone." Banner said as Will unhooked his belt which had his gun, Predator Shurikens, and knife. Banner tensed up a bit as Will placed them on the table. He reached down and undid the fletchette holsters on his ankles as well and placed them with his gun.

"Sorry, forgot I had those." Will then slid everything over to Dr. Banner. He motioned Romanoff to do the same who hesitated but slid over her gun. "We're not here to kill or hurt you in anyway, Dr. Banner. We're with SHIELD…and we need your help."

"SHIELD." Banner said as he looked at them. "How'd you find me?"

"We never lost you, Doctor. We've kept our distance. Even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent." Romanoff told him.

"General Ross included." Will told him as Banner looked at him. "And honestly, after having met the guy I now understand a lot of why you ran."

"Why?" Banner asked.

"Because Nick Fury seems to trust you that you have everything under control. And after reading what happened in Harlem and what's happened since…I agree with him." Will said. "I always believed that Dr. Jekyll had more control than Mr. Hyde. He just didn't know it."

"I'm sure the other guy would disagree with you." Banner said with a chuckle.

"Maybe, but then again you've proven my point." Will said as Dr. Banner looked at him. "Dr. Banner we really need your help. We're facing a serious issue that could put the entire planet at risk."

"[Chuckles] Well, I actively try to avoid those situations." Banner said as Will opened the file to show Dr. Banner the image of the Tesseract and slid it over to him.

"This is the Tesseract. If you're familiar with your history, then you should know it was a superweapon that the Red Skull tried to use to win World War 2. Howard Stark fished it out of the ocean after the war…and this cube has the potential energy to wipe all life on earth." Will told him.

"What does Fury want me to do, swallow it?" Banner asked as he looked over the file.

"That I wouldn't recommend." Will said as Banner looked at him. "Probably taste horrible."

"He wants you to find it. It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace." Romanoff said.

"There's no one on this planet that understands Gamma radiation like you do, Dr. Banner. We need your help." Will said as Banner took off his glasses.

"So, Fury doesn't need the monster." Banner said.

"Not that he's told me." Romanoff said.

"And he tells you everything?" Banner asked.

"He doesn't tell everything to anyone. The man has some serious trust issues. But he doesn't need the Hulk. Quite frankly, I think even he understands that the world doesn't need another Abomination." Will said, referring to Emil Blonsky who became the Abomination after trying to become the Hulk.

"Nice try in the whole reverse psychology thing but I'm not going into a cage." Banner said as Will nodded and stood up.

"All right then." Will said he took back the file. "If you don't want to help…then you don't need to. We're sorry for taking your time, Dr. Banner. We just felt…I just felt that after everything you've been through…you would have wanted to do more to help the planet."

Will grabbed his belt and weapons and he and Romanoff walked to the door to leave. They stepped out and walked away. "Wait." Banner said as they stopped and looked back at him. "Give me a few minutes."

Banner went inside to grab him bag as Will smirked. "Reverse psychology for the win." Will whispered causing Romanoff to chuckle.

Helicarrier, World Security Council Briefing Room

Fury and Hill were at the Helicarrier coordinating everything in response to Loki and the theft of the Tesseract. Fury would have gone straight to New York to get Captain Rogers but was immediately called into the room for a briefing with the World Security Council and they weren't happy.

"Director, SHIELD operates under the world Security Council. We should have been informed of all the details." Councilman Rockwell told him.

"The Council's interest in our work has always been about results, not procedure." Fury replied.

"Agent Clint Barton is intimate with SHIELD procedure, I believe. And now we've learned he's working with the enemy?" Councilman Rockwell asked as Fury realized Hill must have told the Council that Barton was turned. "A man whose talent appears to be—"

"Killing. But he didn't kill me. He didn't take the head shot. He's been brainwashed but I won't write him off. We're on Loki's trail and we're scrambling a response team to retrieve the Tesseract and I have my best agent working on it." Fury said.

"This wouldn't happen to be this Aegis we've read about. One of SHIELD's best agents who happens to be an enhanced individual with abilities that our scientists can't seem to explain and whose identity you won't divulge." Councilwoman Hawley told him.

"I'm not at liberty to divulge Aegis's identity to the Council." Fury said.

"You're out of line, Director. You're dealing with forces that you can't control." Councilman Malick told him.

"Have you ever been in a war, Councilman? In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?" Fury asked. "Despite my earliest reservations, Aegis has proven time and time again that he is one of Earth's best protectors and given the threat that we're facing, he'll be needed."

"You're saying that this Asgard is declaring war on our planet?" Malick asked.

"Not Asgard. Loki." Fury corrected him.

"He can't be working alone. What about the other one? His brother." Hawley asked.

"Our intelligence says Thor is not a hostile, but he's worlds away. We can't depend on him to help us either. It's up to us." Fury said.

"Which is why you should be focusing on Phase 2. It was designed for exactly this situation." Malick said.

"Phase 2 isn't ready. Our enemy is. We need a response team." Fury said as the Council exhaled in exasperation.

"The Avengers Initiative was shut down." Malick told him. "We've seen the list. You're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks."

"I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team. These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need. And Aegis is the final ingredient needed and I'm sure that together the Avengers will be able to stop Loki." Fury told them.

"You believe?" Hawley asked.

"War isn't won by sentiment, Director." Malick told him.

"No, it's won by soldiers. And I have two of the best in the world." Fury said, thinking of Aegis and Captain America.

New York City, New York

Steve Rogers was in an apartment in New York, watching old 40s wartime footage and newsreels from World War 2 about his fight against the Red Skull and Hydra. Rogers shut the video off as he looked at files SHIELD had on his old team and friends. His Howling Commandos were all deceased along with Howard Stark. Steve saw Peggy Carter's file and she was alive and in a retirement home in DC, having long retired from SHIELD. Steve looked at the phone and contemplated calling her but decided not to. He then looked at two new files: one of Tony Stark and the other on Will Detmer. Steve looked at the file on Tony Stark and couldn't believe it was Howard's son. Tony Stark took over Howard's company and is now a superhero the public calls Iron Man. Steve then looked at Will's file and the brief information he was given on Will's alter-ego, Aegis. According to the file, Aegis was a super soldier like he is, but he had unique abilities that made him different. Having met Will in person, Steve couldn't believe that the nice, funny kid he met was such an accomplished and deadly agent.

Steve then decided to get some air and took a walk outside, getting himself familiar with the new Manhattan. He walked down the street as dozens of tourists or people late to work walked past him. Street vendors and artists line the sidewalk as he walked past an Acura dealership showcasing the new Acura RDX. He felt like he was on another planet. Having been gone for 70 years…he felt like he didn't belong here. He eventually found a small café and got a seat at a small table outside. He drank a coffee and was doing a sketch of Stark Tower which was looming above him.

"Waiting on the big guy?" A waitress asked.

"Ma'am?" Steve asked.

"Iron Man. A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by." She told him.

"Right." He said as he took out some money to pay for his coffee. "Maybe another time."

"Table's yours as long as you like. Nobody's waiting on it. Plus we've got free wireless." She said as she went to tend to the other tables.

"Radio?" Steve asked as she looked back at him in a confused look.

"Ask for her number you moron." The old man sitting next to him said. Steve sat there a little longer before taking a train to Brooklyn and wandering around until he found a boxing gym. He paid the owner some money for a locker and got to training.

He relentlessly pummeled a punching bag and with his super soldier strength so much so that the bag began to wear and tear a bit. Steve focused on the bag as he channeled all the emotions he's been feeling about what's happened. He began to flashback to his final moments in World War 2 in fighting against Hydra and the Red Skull, then taking the over the plane and crashing it down in the water, to his last words with Peggy Carter, and finally the moment he woke up from his deep freeze.

That last moment had the rawest emotion and he lashed out a massive punch that knocked the punching bag off the hook and sent it flying across the room, ripping a hole in the bag.

Steve took a few breaths before walking over to set up a new bag and got back to his workout. "Trouble sleeping?!" Steve heard as he saw Fury there.

"I slept for 70 years, sir. I think I've had my fill." He said as he kept punching the bag.

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world." Fury said as he walked up to him. Steve stopped and walked over to his bag and began undoing the tape around his hands.

"When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." He said.

"We made some mistakes along the way. Some, very recently." Fury said as Steve saw he had a file in his hand.

"You here with a mission, sir?" Steve asked.

"I am." Fury replied.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" Steve questioned as he wiped his face with his towel.

"Trying to save it." Fury opened the file to show Steve they were after the Tesseract.

"Hydra's secret weapon." Steve said, remembering when he saw it kill the Red Skull years ago.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think: the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs." Fury told him as Steve looked over the file and handed it back to him.

"Who took it from you?" he asked.

"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know." Fury said to him.

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Steve said as he grabbed his bag.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury asked as Steve walked out of the gym.

"You should have left it in the ocean." Steve said.

Back in Manhattan, Tony Stark was working on getting Stark Tower ready for use and the first step was activating the Arc Reactor. Tony was in the Mark 6 suit at the bottom of the Hudson River putting a power rerouter on the transmission lines so Stark Tower was ready to go off the grid. Once he was finished, he flew out of the river and back to Stark Tower.

"We're all good to go on this end. The rest is up to you." Tony said to Pepper.

"You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?" She asked.

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy." Tony was proud of this moment as he flew through the city.

"Well, assuming the Arc reactor takes over and it actually works." Pepper told him.

"I assume. Light her up." He said as Pepper did and Stark Tower soon lit up completely with the STARK letters on the front of the building glowing blue.

"How does it look?" She asked as Tony looked and smiled.

"Like Christmas, but with more me." He told her.

"We've got to go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in DC tomorrow, I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings—" "Pepper, you're killing me. The moment, remember? Enjoy the moment." He said as he flew up the side of the building and landed on the special balcony/walkway he had installed.

"Get in here and I will." She said as he walked down the walkway and the side panels opened up to reveal a mechanical assembly that began taking off his armor and stowing it away.

"Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line." Jarvis told him.

"I'm not in." Tony said as the robotic arms took off his helmet and chest armor. "I'm actually out."

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting." Jarvis told him.

"Grow a spine, Jarvis. I've got a date." Tony finished his walk and his entire suit was safely stowed away. Je walked into the floor to see Pepper by the computer.

"Levels are holding steady…I think." She looked at the monitor and saw the Arc Reactor was stable.

"Of course, they are. I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?" Tony walked up to her and placed his ear piece on the desk.

"Well, I really wouldn't know, now would I?" Pepper asked as Tony turned the monitor off.

"What do you mean? All this came from you?" Tony motioned to the entire tower.

"No, all this came from that." Pepper said pointing to this Mark 3 chest piece.

"Give yourself some credit. Please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself…12% of the credit." Tony said as she gave him a look.

"12%?" She asked him as if he was joking.

"An argument can be made for 15." He replied.

"12% of my baby?" Pepper walked away to the couch as Tony followed her.

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you. My private elevator…it was teeming with sweaty workmen." He said as Pepper poured two glasses of champagne. "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?"

"It's not going to be that subtle." Pepper told him.

"I tell you what. The next building is going to say Potts on the tower." He told her.

"On the lease." She tried to cheers her glass, but he pulled away.

"Call your mom, can you bunk over?" he joked as an alarm went off.

"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden." Jarvis informed him as Coulson came up on Tony's phone.

"Mr. Stark, we need to talk." Tony grabbed his phone in annoyance and activated the camera, so Coulson could see him.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message." Tony said, causing Pepper to chuckle.

"This is urgent." Coulson told him.

"Then leave it urgently." He replies as Tony's private elevator opened up to reveal Coulson. "Security breach."

"Mr. Stark." Coulson greeted them.

"Phil, come in." Pepper was happy to see him as she and Tony got up.

"Phil? Uh, his first name is agent." Tony said as they walked up to him and Coulson held out a large data file for him.

"We need you to look this over as soon as possible." Coulson told him.

"I don't like being handed things—" "That's fine because I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." Pepper took the file and gave Coulson her glass of champagne, then took Tony's glass of champagne and gave him the data file. "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between 8 and 5 every other Thursday." Tony informed Coulson.

"This isn't a consultation." Coulson replied.

"Is this about the Avengers? Which I know nothing about." Pepper said as Tony scoffed and began unlocking the data file.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped I thought, and I didn't even qualify." Tony said.

"I didn't know that either." Pepper commented.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others." Tony recounted what his Avengers file said about him.

"That I did know." Pepper said with a smirk.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Coulson informed him.

"Whatever. Ms. Potts, got a second?" Tony motioned her over as Pepper joined him. "You know, I thought we were having a moment."

"I was having 12% of the moment." She said and Tony gave her a look. "This seems serious. Phil's pretty shaken."

"How would you know if it's…why is he Phil?" Tony asked as he unlocked the file and Pepper saw a bunch of information.

"What is all this?" Pepper asked.

"This is…" Tony projected all the information on his holo-computer and it displayed information about Thor, Captain America, Dr. Banner, Aegis, the Tesseract and Loki's attack on Project Pegasus. Tony and Pepper saw that this was indeed serious. Pepper ended up heading to DC that night because Tony had some homework to do.

Line Break xxxxx

Secret Location

Agent Barton had established a secret base to operate out of and enlisted the help of rogue mercenaries and scientists to proceed with Loki's plan to open a wormhole. Dr. Selvig was working with the scientists and engineers on constructing the portal device once they got all the materials they needed. Barton was making sure the mercenaries were all armed and ready for combat. Loki was sitting down in a room with his scepter and prepared for an audience with the Other, the one who he was bartering with to gain his army. Loki closed his eyes and opened up an astral projection communication with the Other.

Loki appeared back on the barren rock scape in the middle of space where the Other was waiting for him. Loki was in his traditional Asgardian garb with his horned helmet and the scepter had elongated into a spear.

"The Chitauri grow restless." The Other told him.

"Let them goad themselves. I will lead them in the glorious battle." Loki replied.

"Battle?" The Other scoffed at the idea. "Against the meager might of earth?"

"Glorious, not lengthy." Loki informed him. "If your force is as formidable as you claim."

"You question us?! You question him?!" The Other was offended at that comment. "He who put the scepter in your hand? Who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?"

"I was a king!" Loki exclaimed. "The rightful king of Asgard, betrayed."

"No doubt, you'll fare better on earth." The Other sarcastically commented.

"They are a lost people. They mistake selfishness for spirit. When the sky falls, it'll be every man for himself." Loki told him.

"How will you rule them?" The Other asked.

"Unmercifully." Loki replied with a smirk.

"Gah! Your ambition is little and born of childish need. We look beyond the earth, to the greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil." The Other said.

"You don't have the Tesseract yet." Loki said as the Other appeared in front of him in anger. Loki held up the spear in warning. "I don't threaten. But until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."

"You will have your war, Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain!" The Other touched Loki on the head and ended the conversation.

Barton was with Dr. Selvig who was busy working on some components for the portal device as various scientists moved material he needed. "Put it over there." Selvig ordered as they did what they were told. "Where did you find all these people?"

"SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, Doctor. Is this the stuff you need?" Barton held up a tablet that had information on Dr. Heinrich Schidfer and a compound known as Iridium.

"Yeah, Iridium. It's found in meteorites. It forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get ahold of." Dr. Selvig told him.

"Especially if SHIELD knows you need it." Barton replied.

"Well, I didn't know." Selvig said as he saw Loki walk over. "Hey! The Tesseract has shown me so much. It's more than knowledge. It's truth."

"I know. It touches everyone differently. What did it show you Agent Barton?" Loki asked as Barton turned to him.

"My next target." Barton replied, causing Selvig to chuckle.

"Stick in the mud, he's got no soul. No wonder you chose this…this tomb to work in." Selvig said.

"Well, the Radisson doesn't have three levels of lead-lined flooring between SHIELD and that cube." Barton told him as Selvig conceded his point and got back to work. Loki was impressed with Barton's mind.

"I see why Fury chose you to guard it." Loki said as he and Barton walked through the tomb.

"You're gonna have to contend with him, sir. As long as he's in the air, I can't pin him down. And he'll be putting together a team." Barton told him.

"Are they a threat?" Loki asked.

"Most of the team, they'll be more of a threat to each other than us, but Fury will bring in a special person to bring the team together and he can do it. Once he does that, they can throw some serious noise our way." Barton told him as Loki was intrigued.

"Who is this special person?" Loki asked.

"Will Detmer, goes by codename Aegis. A highly trained agent who's dangerous as it is but is also a telekinetic and telepath. If he gets his sight on you, he can do some serious damage." Barton told him. Loki was more intrigued.

"Can you handle him?" Loki asked as Barton shook his head no.

"No. If it was a just a regular fight, probably but given his abilities and add the fact that I've trained him, that's a fight I would lose." Barton said. "He's our biggest obstacle and if he uses his powers on you, it won't end well."

"Interesting. I was unaware that humans possessed such abilities." Loki said.

"He's the only one. He's someone Fury was adamant he wanted working for SHIELD or else he'd be a powerful enemy." Barton told him. "Fury knows his men and Aegis is his best. He'll send him our way."

"It doesn't matter. My mind is protected." Loki said. "You admire this Will Detmer and Fury."

"He's got a clear line of sight." Barton said.

"Is that why you failed to kill him?" Loki asked as Barton stopped walking.

"It might be. I was disoriented and I'm not at my best with a gun." Barton said as Loki turned to him.

"I want to know everything you can tell me about Will Detmer and this team. I would test their mettle. I'm weary of scuttling in shadow. I mean to rule this world, not burrow in it." Loki said.

"It's a risk." Barton said as Loki smirked. "If your set on making yourself known, it could be useful."

"Tell me what you need." Loki said as Barton walked over to his weapon's case.

"I'll need a distraction." Barton grabbed his bow and unfolded it. "And an eyeball."

Helicarrier

In route to the helicarrier, Coulson had picked up Captain Rogers in a quinjet. Coulson finished checking in with SHIELD command when he got up from his seat and walked over to Captain Rogers and saw him overlooking the data file on the team being assembled to deal with Loki.

"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?" Rogers asked Coulson as he looked over the file on Dr. Bruce Banner and the entity known as the Hulk.

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Dr. Banner thought that Gamma Radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula." Coulson said. Steve watched over the military feed of the Hulk incident at Culver University and he was deadly.

"It didn't go his way, did it?" Rogers asked.

"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, the guy is your regular Stephen Hawking." Coulson said as Rogers' looked at him confused. "He's like a smart person. The only other person who even comes close to you is Will."

"Right." Rogers brought up the file on Aegis. "Hard to believe the kid I met is so dangerous."

"I'm sure a lot of people would say the same thing about you when you first underwent your transformation. And it's a good thing he hasn't lost that personality because that'd be a disconcerting sign." Coulson said as Rogers looked at him. "Will is one of the most powerful enhanced individuals SHIELD has ever encountered. I helped trained him and witnessed his raw potential when he first got his powers. He's someone who's vital to the safety of this planet and we're still not sure how he got his powers."

"Really? How often does that happen?" Rogers asked.

"Not very often. With his power set he could have turned into someone very dangerous if he chose to use them for the wrong reasons. Will's an anomaly and we're just lucky he was raised with the right morals and decided to use his powers in a productive manner. He's helped and saved a lot of people with his powers even before he was made an agent. Given who his biological parents are, it's no surprise he took this path." Coulson said as Rogers looked at him.

"You know who his birth parents are?" Rogers asked.

"I've worked with his father a lot in the past. He's a good agent. As for his mother…"Coulson thought about his first interaction he and Director Fury had with her back in the 90s. "Let's just say he inherited a lot more from her than he thinks."

"Right." Rogers replied as Coulson turned away but then turned back.

"I have to say, it's an honor to meet you officially." He said, causing Steve to smile. "I've sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was present when you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really just a huge honor to have you on board this."

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job." He replied.

"Oh, you are. Absolutely. We made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input." Coulson said.

"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little…old-fashioned?" Rogers asked.

"With everything that's happening, and the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned." Coulson pointed out.

Their quinjet soon arrived on deck at the helicarrier which was busy with activity as many agents and workers were busy with their jobs. Will and Romanoff who were still in their casual wear walked over to the quinjet to see Coulson and Steve get off and the crew taking Captain Roger's gear away.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers." Coulson introduced the two. "And of course you already know Agent Detmer."

"Ma'am. Will." Rogers greeted them as Will nodded.

"Hi. They're waiting for you on the bridge. They've started the face trace." Romanoff told him as he nodded.

"See you there." He walked inside leaving the three Avenger candidates to talk.

"It was quite the buzz around here finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" Romanoff asked.

"Trading cards?" Steve asked.

"They're vintage. He's very proud." Romanoff said.

"And you haven't seen anything yet. Wait until you hear him talk about Lola. He's a sucker for everything vintage." Will said as they saw Dr. Banner walking around and looking at the jets and activity, a little nervous about something triggering a hulk-out.

"Dr. Banner." Steve greeted him as the two shook hands.

"Oh, yeah hi. They told me you would be coming." Dr. Banner said.

"Word is, you can find the cube." Steve said.

"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce asked.

"Only world I care about." Steve pointed out.

"It must be strange for you, all of this." Bruce pointed around at all the advance technology around him.

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar." Steve replied.

"Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe." Romanoff said as they heard a lot of rearing and metal moving. The PA system went off telling all flight deck personnel to secure everything.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked as Banner scoffed.

"Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?" Bruce asked.

"Not exactly." Will said. Steve and Banner walked over to the edge and saw a small whirlpool formed at the edge and it was in fact a giant turbine, four in total.

"Oh no, this is much worse." Banner commented. All the flight deck personnel put on breathing masks and secured the jets to the deck as the helicarrier lifted into the air. Will, Romanoff, Steve, and Dr. Banner walked into the main command center where Director Fury and Deputy Director Hill were overseeing all the flight technicians and analysts who monitored everything on the helicarrier along with relaying information from all of SHIELD. Hill went through her usual pre-flight systems check and all the technicians went through everything and systems diagnosis was perfect. The helicarrier then lifted into the air and entered stealth mode as retro-reflective panels activated all around and camouflaged the entire carrier like it wasn't even there. Steve walked around in wonder while Dr. Banner kept to himself and just wanted this whole thing to be over.

Will walked over to Steve who was amazed at what he saw. "Never gets old, does it?" He asked as Steve nodded. Fury looked over and saw them.

"Gentlemen." Fury walked over as Steve reached into his wallet, took out ten bucks and gave it to him. Steve walked around and Fury walked over to Dr. Banner. "Dr. Banner, thank you for coming."

"Thank you for asking nicely and sending someone who thought like a human being instead of a trained agent." Banner said as Fury nodded. "So, how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury told him.

"Where are you with that?" Banner asked as Fury pointed to Coulson.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops, ATM, and traffic cameras. If it's connected to a satellite or wireless signal, it's eyes and ears for us." Coulson said as Romanoff looked at some of the images.

"That's still not going to find them in time." Romanoff said.

"She's right. Barton knows how we operate and think. He'll prepare for every which way we can try to find him." Will added.

"You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Banner asked.

"How many are there?" Fury replied.

"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." Banner suggested as Fury nodded. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?" Fury asked as Romanoff nodded and walked over to him.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We've got all the toys." Romanoff said and led him to his lab.

Fury walked over to Hill who was at her station busy at work. "Agent Hill, did you tell the council that Barton had been compromised?" Fury asked.

"Was that not procedure?" Hill asked as Fury didn't answer and just walked away. "Did you tell them who exactly was on your response team?"

"I did. And I even informed them of my special recruit, whose identity I hope you haven't divulged." Fury said.

"Of course not, sir. Level 10 clearance as always." Hill replied as Fury did a subtle nod. "Is there anything else you're worried I told them?"

"Do I need to be?" Fury asked as he walked away, and Hill just gave him a look.

Will went to one of the analysts and had him confirm some things such as Dr. Jane Foster being moved and under watch by SHIELD agents along with his family. When Dr. Selvig was taken, they had Jane Foster taken away for her safety incase Loki went after her. Once Will learned Barton was taken, he had some agents watch over his family with a team monitoring his uncle, aunt, and cousin Kim in Brooklyn. His uncle Jeffry Mace was on assignment in London, so Will got in touch with a London based agent who owed him a favor to watch over him for a while.

Once that was done, Will went to pay Dr. Banner a visit in the lab and see if he could help. He walked in with a coffee pot and mug and saw Dr. Banner busy at the computer working on the tracking algorithm. "Agent Detmer, have you come to watch over me?" Dr. Banner asked. "Did Fury send you to make sure I wasn't doing anything I wasn't supposed to?"

"No, I came over to see if I could help. I know a thing or two about this stuff, so I figured I'd offer my help or at least offer some coffee." Will walked over and placed the coffee pot down on a table and saw Dr. Banner's algorithm countering for the radioactive decay energy range interference the Tesseract was likely putting out. "And please, call me Will."

"Do you know anything about Gamma radiation?" Dr. Banner asked.

"Enough to know that you're adjusting gamma radiation's typical 8 MeV energy level to counter for the fact that the Tesseract outputs other forms of energy and omitting other natural outputs of gamma radiation to make the search much easier." Will said as Dr. Banner looked at him. "I'm a man of many talents."

"I'm impressed." Dr. Banner said as he took a cup of coffee. "And I appreciate the coffee but there's not much else I need help with until I get more information on the Tesseract."

"I'll see what I can do about that." Will left to go speak with Coulson and Fury about possibly getting Dr. Banner more information. He walked in to see everyone at work and Coulson next to Steve Rogers as the two were engaged in a conversation.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." Coulson said to Steve.

"No, no it's fine." He replied as Coulson nodded.

"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges, but other then that it's perfect." Coulson said as Will walked over to him.

"Coulson, I just spoke with Dr. Banner and he's working on the tracking algorithm but some more information on the Tesseract might speed things up." He told him as Coulson thought about it.

"I'll talk to Director Fury and see what he thinks." Coulson responded.

"We've got a hit. A 67% match." Agent Sitwell spoke as Coulson walked over and Fury checked the computers to see the information. "Wait, cross match 79%."

"Location?" Coulson asked.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." Sitwell said.

"Captain, Agent Detmer." Will and Steve turned to Director Fury. "You're up."

They both nodded in response. "See you at the Quinjet." Will said as they left to get changed. Will tapped his ear comm to contact Romanoff. "Romanoff, we got a hit. Get a quinjet."

"I'm on it. See you in ten minutes." She replied as Will went to his designated quarters where his suit was waiting for him. He switched his boots and pants and strapped his flechette bands around his ankles. He put on an undershirt before putting on his combat Vibranium jacket and zipped it up. He secured his retractable mask around his collar before putting his belt and thigh holster on. He checked over his HK pistol and holstered it before strapping his pellet holsters around his shoulders and slipping on his battle gloves and forearm guards. He clenched his right fist and his twin Vibranium blades shot out with a distinct hum and the reflective shine of metal glistened his face. He retracted the blades and activated his left gauntlet, synching up his computer and deploying his arm shield. He retracted it back into place and put the rest of his weapons in his belt which consisted of his Predator Combi stick, his two Predator Shurikens, the Predator knife, the four laser net devices, and his two Vibranium orbs.

He left his quarters and made his way over to the quinjet to see Romanoff and the pilot doing a pre-flight check and Steve dressed in his new uniform. His new uniform was decked out with the old red, white, and blue with a star symbol on the chest and wing-tips on his helmet with his signature Vibranium shield. "New suit." Will said as Steve nodded, looking at the suit he was wearing.

"Yeah." Steve said as Will nodded.

"Not bad. A little old school but it's got a classic look to it." Will said as he hit ramp button and the cargo ramp of the quinjet retracted. "Let's go!" Romanoff nodded as the pilot took off and they flew to Germany as fast as they could. "So, Cap, you ready to fight the Asgardian god of mischief and stop an alien invasion?"

"What do you mean alien invasion?" Steve asked as Will realized what he said.

"Spoiler alert. I'll tell you later." Will replied.

Stuttgart, Germany

Loki dressed himself in some human attire and morphed his scepter into the form of a walking stick to blend in with the humans. He was at a Gala event that a wealthy scientist was hosting for charity. While he was at the event, Barton led the group of mercenaries to the research lab of said scientist and killed all the guards. Loki walked through the gala hall, strutting his stuff like he owned the place and made his way over to the scientist. He smacked one of the guards in the face with his scepter before grabbing the scientist by the neck and slamming him onto a table. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small rod, pressing a button to activate a set of spinning razor blades and a high-tech scanner. He then dug the rod into the scientist's right eye, scoping it out and sending the digital copy to Barton's version so he could get past the retina scanner at the lab. The crowd fled in shock and terror as they ran out of the gala as fast as they could. Loki smirked with glee at the panic and fear on the humans' faces when they rushed out of the gala building. Once he finished with the scientists, he walked out of the gala building and used his magic to shift into his Asgardian royal garb including his helmet and his small scepter morphed into a long spear.

Loki walked out onto the street as the fleeing gala guests began to blend in with tourists and bystanders at the square who were wondering what was happening. A police car arrived and sped towards Loki but he fired an energy blast from his scepter, causing the car to crash. Three illusions of Loki appeared around the crowd and boxed them in.

"Kneel before me!" Loki shouted as the crowed backed away in fear. "I said…KNEEL!"

The crowd got down on one knee like they were loyal subjects to a king and Loki chuckled in glee. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?" Loki asked the crowd as he walked among them. "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

A brave old man stood up and looked at Loki. "Not to men like you." He said to the god of mischief as Loki chuckled.

"There are no men like me." Loki responded.

"There are always men like you." The man replied.

"Look to your elder people. Let him be an example." Loki aimed his scepter as the glowing energy core powered up and fired a blast but it hit something and was reflected back and knocked Loki to the ground. Loki and the crowd looked to see the thing that reflected the energy blast was the red, white, and blue shield of Captain America, standing there in his new suit.

"You know the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everyone else…we ended up disagreeing on a lot of things." Cap said.

"The soldier, a man out of time." Loki spoke as he got back to his feet.

"He's not the one who's out of time." Loki turned to the side and saw Aegis standing there in the crowd in full gear and face mask with his pistol pointed straight at his head.

"And there is the psychic. I've heard…interesting things from your comrade." Loki said, intentionally trying to get under his skin but Will didn't let it get to him.

"And I know all I need to know about you just by looking at your face. Now drop the weapon or get put down!" Aegis ordered as the quinjet flew by and hovered into position.

Romanoff was in the gunner seat and took aim at Loki with the minigun attached underneath the cockpit. "Loki, drop the weapon and put your hands on your head!" She ordered as he smirked and fired an energy blast at the quinjet which the pilot was able to maneuver to avoid.

The crowd got to their feet and ran away as Cap threw his shield and hit Loki in the chest then closed the distance as the shield bounced back to his hand. Aegis would have pulled the trigger but didn't want to risk hitting a civilian, so he holstered his gun and ran forward. Cap punched Loki in the face but he quickly rebounded and smacked Cap in the gut with his scepter, knocking him back. Aegis threw two of his flechettes at Loki and hit him in the face, forcing him to close in eyes in reflex so Aegis jumped forward and slugged Loki across the face with a punch and then leaned back and did a back-hand spring to avoid the scepter.

Cap threw his shield again but Loki knocked it to the ground. Cap closed the distance and punched Loki in the side, then ducked under the scepter as Aegis ran forward and did a drop kick, knocking Loki away. He used his telekinesis to pull Cap's shield back to his hand.

"You go low I go high." Aegis said as Cap nodded and the two super soldiers charged at the god of mischief. Aegis threw out one of his shuriken which forced Loki to duck and leave him open to a shield bash from Cap. The shield bash forced him back as Aegis jumped forward, unsheathed his Vibranium forearm blades and slashed at Loki's head, scratching his helmet and nicking his face but doing no visible damage. Loki swung his scepter at Cap who dodged it and kicked out his leg as Aegis slashed him across the face and knocked him back. Cap punched Loki in the stomach as Aegis kicked out his other leg so Cap kneed him in the chest and Aegis punched his arm away while both ducked or blocked the scepter. The shuriken flew back around like a boomerang and slashed Loki's garb, slicing up his clothing and nicking his skin and making a small scratch on his arm. Aegis caught the shuriken and Loki saw the small wound on his arm.

"Guess the God of Mischief isn't so mighty after all." Aegis taunted as Loki growled and fired another energy bolt that the two super soldiers avoided.

Romanoff watched the two super soldiers fight Loki hand-to-hand and working very well together in unison with one going high and the other going low. One blocked for the other while the other kept up the pressure on Loki. Cap would throw his shield to hit Loki and it bounced off so Aegis caught it and attacked, then threw it at Loki and it bounced off back to Cap's hand. "They're all over the place." She said to herself as she couldn't get a clear shot when she began to hear music and some audio feed come over the comms.

"Agent Romanoff, you miss me?" A familiar voice spoke over the comms as the loud speaker began to play Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC and she immediately knew who it was.

Cap looked up and saw something flying in close as did Loki. Aegis knew who it was and capitalized on Loki's distraction, disarming him and knocking the scepter away. He kicked out Loki's leg, grabbed his arm and threw him up into the air as two beams of energy hit Loki. The impact knocked Loki through the air and he hit the ground hard. A metal figure landed on the ground in a crouch and Aegis and Cap saw Iron Man had arrived. Iron Man aimed his repulsor, mini-rocket, shoulder cannons, and explosive wrist launcher at Loki.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games." Iron Man taunted him as Cap and Aegis joined him. Aegis aimed his gun at Loki's left eye and was ready to put a bullet in it. Loki then raised his hands to surrender as his garb and armor disappeared. "Good move."

"Mr. Stark." Cap greeted him.

"Captain." Iron Man replied back. "Thanks for the setup, kid."

"Happy for the team up. What took you so long?" Aegis asked.

"Hit a little turbulence in England." Iron Man replied.

Will took one of his Vibranium Orbs and morphed it into large metal bands to handcuff Loki so he couldn't escape. He may be a Norse God but he's not breaking free of Vibranium handcuffs. He and Cap dragged him onto the quinjet, strapped him down to a seat and secured the scepter into a containment box. Another SHIELD team secured everything in Germany while Aegis, Captain America, and Black Widow transported Loki back to the Helicarrier with Iron Man coming with.

Will retracted his mask and sat across from Loki and attempted to read his mind to figure out where Barton was and the Tesseract location…but found out he couldn't. He had been trying ever since they brought Loki on the quinjet but got nothing. This has never happened to him before. He's been able to read the mind of anyone he's come across if he tried. It came in handy when he was on missions and needed Intel, but this is the first time he couldn't read anything…just nothing…emptiness which either meant that Loki was really dumb and had no brain or he was blocking him somehow. He had the key for the door but the lock wouldn't budge.

"Having trouble?" Will opened his eyes and saw Loki smirking at him. Will closed his eyes and concentrated harder but still got nothing. "I'm aware of an expression you humans use…if at first you don't succeed, give up."

"Wow, I'm amazed at your understanding of common phrases, Mr. Mask." Will joked as Loki gave him a puzzled look. "It was a movie about…you know what, never mind."

Will tried again but still got nothing…there was some kind of wall built around Loki's mind that was keeping him from breaching it. "Your abilities may be impressive for a human, but you're not the first telepath I've encountered. And your skills with the mind are nothing to a god, mortal." Loki taunted as Will just smirked and stood up.

"Good to know. By the way, who won that fight?" Will quipped as he walked over to Romanoff who was speaking to Fury.

"Is he saying anything?" Fury asked.

"Only taunts to Will." Romanoff replied as she saw Will walk over and he motioned for her headset, so she took it off and gave it to him.

"Director." Will answered. "Go secure."

"Secure link established. Give me a sit-rep." Fury ordered.

"Loki's not going anywhere but I think he's got something up his sleeve. I've spent the last twenty minutes trying to read his mind and got nothing." Will said. Romanoff perked up when she heard him say that.

"Meaning your power doesn't affect him?" Fury asked.

"Meaning he's blocking me somehow. He's got some kind of mental barrier around his mind that's keeping me from reading him." Will said as Fury didn't respond for a few seconds.

"How is that possible?" Fury asked.

"I'm not sure. Loki's aware of my ability and he's dealt with people like me before, probably other Asgardians so when Barton told him of me he was prepared. He probably knows more about my ability then I do." Will responded. "I'll need more time and a secure area to attempt to break through that barrier. I'll attempt again when we arrive."

"Keep your eyes on him and get him here. We're low on time." Fury said.

"Roger that." Will ended the transmission and handed the headset back to Romanoff before walking over to Steve and Tony.

"Everything ok, kid?" Tony asked, but he just shook his head no.

"No. Mr. Sparkling-Personality over there is immune to my telepathy." Will said as Tony and Steve spared a glance at Loki. "Normally, I'd be able to read his mind, find the Tesseract and this whole thing would be over in time for dinner but he's blocking me somehow and it freaks me out."

"Do you think you can break through?" Steve asked and Will gave him a shrug.

"More time and effort and I might be able to break through…but this whole thing bothers me." Will said as Steve agreed.

"What do you mean?" Tony asked.

"Loki. This whole coming out at that gala where he knew we would find him and then giving up. What the hell for?" Will asked. "Even with the two of us, that fight was pretty dead even, but I've read over the reports of what happened at Project Pegasus. He could have done a lot worse."

"Will's right. This guy packs a wallop so why would he give up so easily?" Steve asked.

"Still, you're pretty spry for an older fellow." Tony said as Steve looked at him. "What's your thing, Pilates?"

"What?" Steve asked.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple of things, you know doing time as a Capsicle." Tony said.

"Fury didn't say he was bringing you in." Steve said.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." Tony said as Will nodded.

"That's the truth." Will said as Steve looked at him. "Fury knows more about my birth mother than he's letting on. The file he gave me was sparse at best meaning he adjusted it on purpose."

"Have you tried reading his mind?" Tony asked.

"Fury has specialized electronic interference bugs placed under his ears. That along with the earbud he always wears screws with my telepathy. All I get is static." Will said which surprised Tony. He didn't think the kid's telepathy could be interfered like that. "Fury's hiding something about my birth mother from me."

Before Will could go on a small tirade, a large boom of thunder and bolt of lightning flared up out of nowhere. "Where's this coming from?" Romanoff asked as she checked the scanner and it showed the weather was clear a few minutes ago. Steve looked and saw Loki was startled by the lightning.

"What's the matter? Are you scared of a little lightning?" Steve asked.

"I'm not overly fond of what comes next." Loki told him.

The lightning and thunder storm flared up again as Will's danger sense went off with a slight tingle. Nothing intense like he was in immediate danger, only a slight tingle which meant something was coming.

"Something's coming." Will said and a few seconds later, the quinjet shook because something landed on the ceiling. Will pulled up his hood and activated his mask as Tony and Steve put their helmets back on. Tony walked over and hit the ramp control button causing the ramp to open up while the quinjet was flying. A blonde haired man in silver armor and red cape landed on the ramp with a large hammer in his hand. Tony raised his repulsor but before he could fire a blast, the man bashed Tony with his hammer and sent him crashing into Aegis and Captain America. The man grabbed Loki, ripped him up from the seat, grabbed him by the neck and flew out of the quinjet hammer first.

Tony got off of Captain America and Aegis as Edi finished running a facial recognition program on their mystery guest and it came back as Thor, Loki's brother that Coulson encountered in New Mexico and was supposed to be a protector of Earth.

"And now there's that guy." Iron Man said.

"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff asked.

"That's Thor. He's a friendly!" Aegis shouted.

"Doesn't feel like it. If he frees Loki or kills him then the Tesseract's lost." Iron Man replied as he walked over to the ramp.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Captain America told him.

"I have a plan, attack." Iron Man flew out of the quinjet and disappeared into the night sky.

"Great." Aegis growled. He ran forward and jumped out of the quinjet before nose diving straight to the ground, using his powers to fly through the sky.

Steve grabbed a parachute and strapped it to his back. "I'd sit this one out, Cap." Romanoff told him.

"Don't see how I can do that." He replied.

"These guys come from legend, they're basically gods." Romanoff told him.

"There's only one god, Ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." The Captain grabbed his shield and dove out of the quinjet like Aegis did.

Thor flew to the peak of a small mountain and threw Loki to the ground before landing with a loud thud and small impact crater. Loki groaned in pain for a moment before laughing and pushing himself up to his feet with his bound hands.

"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor asked but Loki just chuckled.

"Oh, I missed you too." Loki snickered.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!" Thor shouted at him, not happy.

"Oh, you should actually thank me. With the Bifrost gone, how much Dark energy did the All-father have to summon to conjure you here? You're precious earth." Loki said as Thor dropped his hammer with a loud thud and grabbed Loki by the neck.

"I thought you dead." Thor said to his brother.

"Did you mourn?" Loki was curious if he did, given their relationship.

"We all did. Our father—""You're father." Loki stopped him from finishing that sentence. "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?"

Loki stepped away from Thor and walked along the small peak they were on and tried to rip the cuffs around his hands but didn't have the strength. "We were raised together, we played together, we fought together: do you remember none of that?!" Thor asked.

"I remember a shadow…living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I am and should be king!" Loki shouted at him.

"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor walked over to Loki to make his point. "No, the earth is under my protection, Loki."

That statement made Loki laugh at his naivety. "And you're doing a marvelous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly threat. I mean to rule them, and why should I not?"

"You think yourselves above them?" Thor asked as Loki looked at him funny.

"Well, yes." Loki was quick to reply.

"Then you missed the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill." Thor said as Loki growled and pushed him away. He walked over to the edge of the peak to make his statement more dramatic.

"I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it—""Who showed you this power?" Thor asked, wanting to know who has been helping Loki. "Who controls the would-be king?!

"I AM A KING!" Loki shouted as Thor grabbed him.

"Not here! You give up the Tesseract, you give up this poisonous dream! You come home." Thor begged his brother to see reason.

"I don't have it." Loki said. Thor growled and summoned Mjolnir to his hand. "You need to the cube to send me home but I've sent it off I know not where."

"You listen well, brother…I [THUD]" Thor was cut off as Iron Man tackled him off the mountain peak.

"I'm listening." Loki joked.

Iron Man had tackled Thor from the mountain peak and flew them to the bottom of the mountain. He threw Thor to the ground and landed in a crouch as Thor bounced and skid across the dirt and quickly got to his feet to see the metal man standing there in front of him. His mask open up to reveal he was human.

"Do not touch me again." Thor warned him.

"Then don't take my stuff." Tony warned back.

"You have no idea what you're dealing with." Thor warned him as Tony looked around.

"Uh, Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you wear-eth her drapes?" Tony joked, but Thor wasn't amused.

"This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice." Thor told him.

"He gives up the cube he's all yours. Until then…" Tony's mask came down in place. "…stay out of the way. Ugh, tourists."

Thor growled in anger and threw Mjolnir at Iron Man. The mystical hammer hit Tony like a truck and smashed him through a tree and knocked him to the ground. Tony froze a bit as Jarvis reported structural damage to his armor's chest plate.

"Ok." Iron Man was ready for some payback. Thor summoned Mjolnir back to his hands and saw the metal man slowly get up. He grabbed the leather handle and began rapidly spinning his hammer when a surprise repulsor blast knocked him into a tree. Iron Man flew forward and kicked him through the tree and knocked him to the ground. Thor got back to his feet and raised his hammer as a crack of thunder was heard and a bolt of lightning was summoned from the sky right into the hammer.

Thor then aimed his hammer at Iron Man and fired the bolt of lightning at him, zapping him with immense energy. The light and heat of the lightning bolt scorched parts of his chest armor and the impact forced him to take a few steps back. Tony's HUD was on the fritz from the sudden influx of energy and bright light but soon normalized.

"Power at 400% capacity." Jarvis reported and Tony was pleasantly surprised.

"How about that." Iron Man fired his two repulsors and uni-beam at Thor and the impact knocked him away. Thor landed on his feet in a growl as Iron Man got himself ready. They both flew towards one another as the thrusters on Iron Man gave him the extra momentum to win the clash. He punched him the in face a few times as the two nearly crashed into a mountain and began skidding up the side of it. Thor got one of his hands free and elbowed Iron Man in the face before running up the mountain and pushing off, sending them flying back to the forest. They exchanged blows mid-air and crashed through a tree and hit the ground in a plume of dirt.

They quickly got back to their feet as Thor slugged Iron Man across the face, making a small dent in his armor. Iron Man quickly threw out a punch, but Thor caught his arm, so he threw out his other fist only for Thor to grab it as well. Thor began squeezing as his god-like strength bent and crushed the metal on Tony's forearm and Jarvis alerted him of the damage he was taking so he had to do something. He opened his palm and fired a repulsor blast point blank in Thor's face, dazing him and then headbutting him back but Thor quickly responded with a headbutt of his own and knocked Iron Man backwards into a roll. Iron Man rolled back to his feet and flew forward, grabbed Thor by the cape and threw him into a tree.

Thor quickly got back up and charged at Iron Man, dodging a punch to the face, and landing a punch of his own to Iron Man's side. He then landed a hammer fist to Iron Man's back, grabbed him by the back and slammed him onto the ground. He called Mjolnir back to his hand and brought it down to squish his adversary, but Iron Man activated his thrusters and flew out of the way at the last second. He turned around in the air and hit Thor in the face with a flying punch but before the two could continue their fight, a metal object hit them both.

"HEY!" They heard as the metal object hit them both and ricocheted back to Captain America who was standing on the trunk of a broken tree. "That's enough!"

The Captain jumped down from the tree and walked up to the two. "Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here."

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" Thor said.

"Then prove it. Put that hammer down." Captain America told him.

"Uh, yeah no. Bad call. He loves his hammer- "Iron Man was cut off as Thor smashed him away.

"You want me to put the hammer down?!" Thor shouted. He jumped forward and raised his hammer to strike the Captain who raised his shield to block it. Just before Mjolnir hit the shield, Thor was frozen in place, floating in the air and found he couldn't move. "What magic is this?!"

"No magic." They heard as he and the Captain looked up to see Aegis floating in the air and hover down to the ground. He raised his left hand and Loki floated down from the sky, his hands still bound in Vibranium and looks like he got a new bruise on his face. "Just a unique set of powers. Are you three done with your little pissing contest so we can focus on the real problem that involves the green-clad egomaniac?"

"Oh, why did you stop the fighting? Let them continue attacking each other like rapid dogs—MFFFT" Loki was cut off as Aegis used his telekinesis and threw Loki against a tree. He then used his other Vibranium orb and encased Loki's whole body with it so he couldn't move and for an extra measure, used it to cover his mouth so he couldn't talk.

"That's enough out of you, Hamlet." Aegis said. He lowered Thor to the ground and released his telekinetic hold. "Thor, there's no need for us to fight. We're on the same side. I work for SHIELD. You met Agent Coulson."

"Ah, yes, Son of Coul. He worked for the SHIELD." Thor told him as Aegis deactivated his mask so Thor could see he was human. "You work for SHIELD?"

"I do as does the Captain. We want the same thing: to stop Loki from using the Tesseract to conquer the planet. We'll waste more time arguing amongst ourselves and that only helps Loki and his plans. Come with us to the SHIELD Helicarrier. We'll detain Loki, and once we find the Tesseract, you can take him back to Asgard." Will said and he held his hand towards Thor.

"You spoke the hard truth, agent of SHIELD and you hold yourself like a noble warrior. Agreed." Thor shook his hand and they gained new ally.

"Call me Will or Aegis." Will said as he pressed a button his forearm computer to call Romanoff. "Romanoff, come pick us up. I have Loki and we have a new ally."

Line Break xxxxx

Helicarrier

Once they arrived at the Helicarrier, Will marched Loki inside where Director Fury and a whole squad of heavily armed SHIELD agents were waiting for him. He removed the Vibranium restraints and marched Loki through the Helicarrier to the secured cell they had waiting for Loki. As they walked through the hall, they passed by Dr. Banner's lab and Loki gave him a mischievous glance before Will pushed him forward and kept him moving. They arrived in Loki's prison cell which was a large circular glass and metal cell. Will moved Loki into his cell and Fury locked it into place, securing the Asgardian god of mischief. The SHIELD Team left leaving just Will and Director Fury. Loki looked at his cell and began contemplating his escape.

"Incase it's unclear. If you try to escape or so much as scratch that glass…" Fury pressed a few buttons on a console and the airlock underneath Loki's cell opened up to reveal why the cell didn't seem so secure because if he tried to escape, he'd get ejected right out of the ship and fall to his death. "30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

Fury pressed another button and the airlock closed back up. "Ant…" Fury pointed at him and then the console. "Boot."

Loki chuckled at Fury's threat. "It's an impressive cage. Not built I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury told him.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki looked at the security camera in his cell, knowing full well that Dr. Banner and the others were watching. "The mindless beast who makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you that you'd call on such lost souls to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill because it's fun…you have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Fury warned him.

"Oh…it burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power…unlimited power and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is." Loki told him as Fury didn't spare him a glance and walked over to Will.

"You want to know what real power is…he'll show you." Fury pointed to Will and leaned in to whisper. "Get in his head and get me intel."

"Yes, sir." Will replied and Fury left.

"Let me know if the god of mischief want's a magazine or something." Fury said..

Loki looked at Will with a smirk and began laughing. "Oh, this will be enjoyable to watch your feeble attempts to break me. Well go on, Aegis…break me." Loki taunted him as Will closed his eyes and concentrated, drawing on all the training he's done with his telepathy to break through Loki's mental barriers.

He extended his arm and held his hand towards Loki as his body began to glow blue, signifying he was using more than a typical amount of power. Loki continued to chuckle in amusement until he began to get a tingling in his head. "Give up this petty parlor tricks, human. You're nothing to a god." Loki laughed off his attempts but Will continued and the tingling got more frequent.

"Tell me what you know." Will said. He began to glow brighter and the tingling in Loki's head got more intense. Loki clutched his head slightly and his breathing hitched as he began to feel the strain of keeping his mental barrier strong against the human's telepathy bombardment.

"Nothing good comes from this folly. Give up now and I'll be merciful." Loki warned him as the attack on his mind was getting more intense. "I mean it! Give up now, human!"

"Tell me what you know!" Will turned his head slightly and drew on more of his power. Loki struggled to maintain his mental barrier against this powerful assault. It was unlike anything he had encountered before.

"Stop this! Stop it!" Loki shouted. Will opened his eyes and they were glowing blue.

"Tell me what you know!" Will had used his telepathy to speak aloud and soon, he broke through Loki's mental barrier and entered his mind. He began looking through Loki's memories of his past with Thor and his relationship with his adopted family. Dysfunctional was an understatement and the amount of baggage that he had would keep an entire team of psychologists busy for the rest of their lives.

He then began to see the set of memories of Thor's exile, Loki's temporary ascension to the throne of Asgard, him sending the Destroyer to kill Thor and his presumed death when he met some creature known as the Other who was the liaison for someone named…Thanos. He was the purple alien Will saw in his vision with the Chitauri when this whole thing started, and he gave Loki the scepter. He promised Loki the Earth if he gave him the Tesseract and Loki needed the Tesseract to open a portal for the army to invade. Will tried to figure out where it was but Loki either didn't know or removed that piece of information from his mind before he put the barrier up as a safeguard. The last memory before Loki went to Germany was the interaction between him and the Other and Loki speaking to Barton about what Dr. Selvig needed for the portal device.

Will stopped his telepathic invasion of Loki's mind and his body and eyes stopped glowing. He looked and saw Loki down on one knee, clutching his head in pain. Loki looked up and glared at Will with soul-searing hatred. "You have no idea what pain you've wrought on yourself, mortal. I will destroy your world with fire and brimstone. The Chitauri will topple your monuments and slaughter your kind. Many of them shall die merciful and quick deaths but I shall ensure that yours is long, painful, and excruciating. I will find your loved one and you will watch as I bury my blade in their—" Loki was cut off as Will used his telekinesis to fling Loki up and bash him into the ceiling of his cell. The locks of the cells shook a bit as Loki hit the ground face first.

"Honestly just listening to you is exhausting. Thor must really have the patience of a god to have grown up with you." Will turned around and left.

Dr. Banner, Romanoff, Rogers, Coulson, Tony, Thor, and Deputy Director Hill were standing around the large conference-like table and had watched the entire ordeal on the camera footage.

"I didn't think he could actually do it." Romanoff said.

"I did." Tony said as he walked around the table and passed Thor. "No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." Tony pat Thor on the shoulder and leaned against the railing by Fury's monitor. "I know the kid well enough to know that something like this, he wouldn't have given up. Loki met his match. I'm just glad he's on our side."

"Aren't we all. Will is going to be instrumental in this." Coulson said.

"But instrumental in what? What's Loki's plan?" Hill asked.

"An invasion." They heard as Will walked in from the hallway. He walked over to Tony who smiled and pat him on the back. "Loki's whole plan with the Tesseract is an invasion of earth."

"With what army?" Coulson asked.

"Let me show you." Will walked over to the table and closed his eyes, concentrating and soon a flickering blue image appeared on the table like a hologram. Everyone was shocked as they looked at Will and saw he was doing this. The image showed the army of Chitauri he saw in his vision and he took from Loki's head and it showed a lot of them. It then showed an image of the Other and a brief glimpse of a purple alien before cutting out. Will's breathing hitched as he staggered on his feet, clutched the table for support and grabbed his head in pain. "Argh!"

Thor got to this side and stabilized him. "I'm all right." Will stood up and shook his head. "I've never really done that a lot so it's still new. He has an army called the Chitauri. They were promised to Loki by someone very powerful and very dangerous. Loki's been promised the army and will use it to conquer the planet but first he needs to use the Tesseract to open a portal to lead them to here. When they win him the earth, the Tesseract is there's."

"Heimdall found out similar information. William is right." Thor supported his report.

"An army…from outer space." Steve said.

"So, I was right, Loki is building another portal. It's what he needs Eric Selvig for." Banner said.

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner told him.

"He's a friend." Thor added.

"Loki has him under some kind of mind control…along with one of our one." Romanoff said.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him? I mean, he's not leading an army from here?" Steve asked.

"I don't think we should focus on Loki. I mean you saw him. That guy's brain is like a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him." Banner told him.

"Have care how you speak. Loki may be beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother." Thor warned him.

"He killed 80 people in 2 days." Romanoff said.

"He's adopted." Thor replied.

"I'm not sure why he let us take him. Loki's mind at the moment he came to earth is…scrambled. A lot of memories were missing like he didn't want me to see anything." Will told them.

"Can you even do that?" Steve asked.

"Loki's mental abilities are among the best in Asgard. It was often the source of many childhood pranks when he was younger. If he adjusted his memory, then there were memories you weren't meant to see." Thor told Will.

"That makes sense. Barton told Loki about my abilities and it's why he prepared his brain with mental barriers. But one of the last memories I was able to see was Selvig had Barton break into a lab in Germany for Iridium." Will said.

"Yes, back to the mechanics. What do they need the Iridium for?" Banner asked aloud to the group.

"It's a stabilizing agent. It a means so the portal won't collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD. Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Tony said as he walked around to the little podium-computer display Fury used. "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the top sails."

All of the shield analysts and engineers looked at Tony in confusion. "That man is playing Galaga!" Tony pointed to an engineer in a corner and Will shook his head and chuckled. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Tony put one hand over his eyes and looked at the monitors. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Hill told him.

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source…" Tony messed with Fury's computers and subtlety placed an electronic bug on one of the computers and it began hacking into the files. "…of high energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.

"Last night." Tony said as Hill gave him a look. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony looked at everyone as Will raised his hand.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked as Dr. Banner did some quick calculations in his head.

"He would have to head the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb Barrier." Banner stated.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony added.

"Well, if he did that, he could achieve heavy Ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner finished.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony said as Steve just gave them a look.

"Is that what just happened?" He asked.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green-rage monster." Tony said as Banner just sighed.

'Thanks." He replied when Director Fury walked into the room.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury said.

"Loki gave direct orders to Selvig that once Barton obtained the Iridium that he was to pack up and leave to another secure location to activate the portal. Unfortunately, I don't know where that it but they're mobile and we know they'll need a serious power source so that should narrow down locations." Will said.

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Steve said.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube." Fury said but Will shook his head no.

"I don't think so, Director." Will said as Fury looked at him. "It may have similar affects but I think that thing is something else entirely."

"What do you mean?" Hill asked.

"I'm not sure but the staff was given to Loki by the being who promised him the army. For all we know, it could have properties we know nothing about and just be another dangerous object. Permission to join Tony and Dr. Banner in analyzing it?" Will asked.

"Granted. Get to the bottom of this and figure out how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury ordered.

"Monkeys? I don't understand—""I do." Steve quickly spoke. "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked.

"This way." Bruce led Tony and Will to his lab where the Scepter was brought and they quickly got to work on analyzing every single inch of it. They hook it to up scanners and Dr. Banner went over the device with spectrometer/Geiger counter and began getting low-level Gamma radiation like the Tesseract. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract."

"Crystalline structure of the gem is common enough in carbon elements…but there are elements that are foreign to the periodic table." Will looked over the data on the monitor and began running a sonic resonance scan to try and get an internal image of the crystal. "Other energy signature in the crystal like the Tesseract but there seems to be one that wasn't in Selvig's report."

"That might the key to figuring out what this thing is but with the mainframe here it'll take weeks to process." Banner said.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this at around 600 teraflops." Tony said as he set up his own connection to the STARK server to speed this up.

"Heh, and all I packed was a toothbrush." Banner said.

"You know, you should come by STARK Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's a Candy Land." Tony said to Banner as he grabbed an electrical tool.

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke…Harlem." Banner said.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." Tony then zapped Banner in the side.

"Ow!" Banner shouted in reflex as Tony looked at his eyes to see if they turned green.

"Seriously, Tony?" Will shook his head and got back to work.

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve asked as he walked into the lab.

"Jury's out. You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Tony asked.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked Stark.

"Funny things are." Tony replied.

"Threatening of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doc." Steve said to Dr. Banner.

"No, it's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Banner said causing Tony to chuckle.

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony walked over to his bag and took out a bag of blueberries.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve told him.

"Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equations unless I have all the variables." Tony told him.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony said as he ate a blueberry. "It's bugging them too."

"Uh…I just want to finish my work here, and—""Doctor?" Steve urged him to speak his mind. Banner took a breath and removed his glasses.

"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube." Banner said.

"I heard it." Steve said.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Banner said to Tony who offered him some blueberries so he took a few. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly…" Steve stopped himself when he saw the look Tony was sending him. "…building in New York?"

"It's powered by an Arc Reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Bruce asked as Tony nodded.

"It's just a prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at." Tony told Steve.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract Project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Banner suggested.

"We're not." Will said as Steve looked at him. "We're a defense agency first and foremost. We protect the planet and people from things they're not ready for but solving the world's energy crisis doesn't seem like something the World Security Council or Fury would do."'

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony said and took out his cellphone to check the progress Jarvis was making with their hack.

"I'm sorry, did you say—"" Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has every tried to hide. Blueberry?" Tony offered.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around." Steve said.

"And intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome." Tony said.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them." Steve told them.

"Steve, I'm all for following orders and believe me I owe Fury and SHIELD a lot but none of this seems right. We have orders but I think you'd agree that in some situations following your gut is better." Will told him. "Can you say that none of this seems off to you?"

Steve looked at him and contemplated the idea. "Just find the Cube." Steve left the lab.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? I'm starting to wonder if they should have kept him on ice." Tony said.

"[Cough] Daddy issues. [Cough]" Will joked as Bruce chuckled and Tony just gave him a look. "Ugh, sorry don't know where that came from."

"Well he's not wrong about Loki. He's got the jump on us." Bruce said.

"What he's got is an Acme dynamite kid. It's going to blow up in his face. And I'm going to be there when it does." Tony said.

"Yup, and I'll read all about it." Bruce said as he sent over all the files to Tony's server.

"Uh-huh, or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Tony replied.

"No, you see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed. Like a nerve. It's a nightmare." Banner said.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it." Tony touched his chest piece. "This little circle of light, it's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."

"I was an ordinary college student before all this happened." Will said. He walked over to join the three. "Just a kid on summer break who thought the weirdest thing I would ever see in my life was a billionaire in a high-tech suit who had no idea what to do with it. No offense, Tony."

"None taken, kid." Tony replied.

"Then a stroke of fate brought a meteor into my path and the next thing I know…my brain was supercharged and pretty much torpedoed my chance at a normal life…like you." Will said.

"I think our circumstances are a little different, Will." Dr. Banner told him.

"In some cases, yes but in some cases no." Will said as Dr. Banner looked at him. "You're not the only one who can do a lot of damage if he loses control. When I first got my powers, I could barely lift a lawn chair. Now, I could snap a man's neck with a snap of my fingers, crush a tank with a single thought and probably bring the whole Helicarrier down if I got pissed off or angry."

"But you learned to control it. I can't." Dr. Banner said.

"Tell that to the people you saved from the Abomination." Will said as Banner looked at him. "Dr. Banner, if you're willing to I can take a look in your head and figure out what's going on with your alter-ego. Or better yet, maybe give you two a chance to speak face-to-face in a safe situation?"

"Why would I want to do that?" Banner asked.

"Give you a chance to speak to the person you've been so scared of turning into by accident. Maybe get you two on some kind of understanding." Will said.

"You mean if he wants to eat my brain and take over my body and kill everyone here?" Banner asked as Will looked at the Doctor.

"I think your relationship is a little more complicated than that, Dr. Banner." Will said. "I read the report on your accident. That amount of gamma radiation should have killed you."

"So, what? You're saying that the Hulk…that the other guy saved me? That's a great thought. Saved it from what?" Banner asked.

"Who knows unless we ask him." Will said. Dr. Banner just looked at him like he was crazy. "Ignoring all the Freudian Id, Super-Ego and psychosis crap, allowing you to actually see the Hulk might give you a better understanding of your relationship. Just one time to help you…that's all I'm asking."

"And what happens if he gets angry and wants to come out?" Dr. Banner asked.

"I'll put you to sleep before that happens." Will said. "One leap of faith, Dr. Banner. That's all I'm asking."

"I took one already and it led me here." Dr. Banner took a big sigh and thought about Will's offer. "I'm only doing this out of scientific curiosity."

"Duly noted." Will said as he brought over a chair and motioned Dr. Banner to sit. Will got in his own chair and sat cross from Dr. Banner. "Ok, just take a deep breath and calm your mind. Things will get weird so just listen to me and we'll be fine."

Dr. Banner took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Will concentrated and opened up a mental link between the two. He then quickly put Dr. Banner to sleep and entered his mind.

Dr. Banner opened his eyes and saw himself standing in the empty test lab where he was exposed to the gamma radiation that caused the Hulk accident. "Creepy isn't it?" Dr. Banner heard as he turned and saw Will standing there in his regular clothes which was weird because before he went to sleep he was wearing his Aegis uniform. "Believe me, when I first tried this I was kind of freaked out, but you get used to it."

"Where are we?" Dr. Banner asked.

"We're in your head. Or more accurately, we're in your sub-conscious. It's the part of your mind that you aren't aware of but impacts certain aspects of your behavior or actions. And in your case, your subconscious happens to be the scientific part of your brain." Will said.

"How is this possible?" Dr. Banner asked, still unsure as to how he was actually seeing his subconscious mind in person.

"Not sure on the specifics but from what I can tell, your subconscious takes the form of whatever part of your mind or personality is more prevalent. For you, it's your scientific mind. And the reason you're seeing me and we're able to walk about your subconscious is because I'm using my mind-walking ability to let us view your mind from a third-person point of view while you're actually asleep in the real world." Will said as Dr. Banner looked at him weird. "Believe me, this is only the beginning of the weird sandwich. Plus, our appearance is how our mind sees ourselves. A little deep but don't think too much into it."

"Ok, so far so good." Dr. Banner said. "Now what?"

"Well, after a little looking through your mind this isn't the only one part of your subconscious. It's the part of Bruce Banner. You have another part of your subconscious that's currently asleep and that's where we'll find your green-skinned alter-ego." Will said as he raised his hand and the area around them began to fade out like someone took out a giant eraser to it and they found themselves in a dark place of rubble and leaking water.

"Where are we?" Banner asked as he looked around.

"This is the part of your subconscious where the Hulk resides." Will said. He walked over to the rubble and saw something underneath. He waved his hand and the rubble disappeared to reveal a sign that read home. "Home."

"Leave…me…alone…"They heard a deep guttural voice whisper out of nowhere. Dr. Banner and Will looked around in the darkness to see a set of green-colored eyes glaring at them. The eyes then looked at Banner and growled. "Puny Banner…leave Hulk alone."

The surrounding area shook a bit which meant the Hulk was a little pissed off. "Whoa." Will steadied himself as he saw Dr. Banner was scared. "It's ok, Dr. Banner. Don't worry. Hulk, can you hear me?"

"Leave Hulk alone."Hulk warned them and stepped out into view, giving Will his first good look at the jade green giant and he was big. The name Hulk was accurate and with his massive frame and angry expression, Will was a little scared that he even gulped like he was in a cartoon.

"We don't want to hurt you." Will told him as he motioned Dr. Banner to speak.

"We don't want to hurt you." Dr. Banner said as well.

"All humans want to hurt Hulk. Humans scared of Hulk. Humans shoot at Hulk. Hulk wants to be left alone!"Hulk shouted as Will took a step back in reflex but stood his ground.

"We're not like most humans." Will told the Hulk, showing his strength by standing his ground. "We want to help. Ok, you and Dr. Banner are connected, and nothing can change that so I'm trying to help you two co-exist peacefully. I want to help you."

"Hulk needs no one!"Hulk shouted as a shockwave shook the room. Dr. Banner felt his anger rising but Will used his telepathy to calm him down. "Puny human strong. Puny human protect puny Banner."

"I want to protect you both. I saw the footage of your fight against the Abomination and I know that you could have hurt people, but you didn't. You protected them by stopping the Abomination. You're not a mindless monster." Will told him as the Hulk just glared at him. "Dr. Banner, anything to add here?"

Dr. Banner hesitated a bit as he looked at the Hulk. "This may be one of your only chances to speak your mind." Will told him.

"Hulk…did you save me the day at the lab?" Dr. Banner asked as the Hulk just growled.

"Hulk needs puny Banner. Puny Banner weak but Hulk needs puny Banner. No puny Banner, no Hulk."Hulk told him.

"I think that's a yes." Will said as the Hulk glared at them.

"Hulk tired. Leave Hulk alone!"Hulk shouted.

"I think we should leave now." Dr. Banner said.

"Right." Will pulled them out of his subconscious and back into the real world where the two woke up with a start. "[Gasp] Whew, ok. That's a special kind of hungover."

Will shook his head from the headache he got as Tony walked over to him. "Kid, you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm good." Will looked at Dr. Banner who was doubled-over like he was going to puke. "Dr. Banner, you ok?"

"Give me a second." Dr. Banner held up a finger and motioned them to wait. He took a deep breath and pulled his head up. "That was strange."

"Yup, but I'm getting better at that." Will said as his brain hurt. His telepathy was a bit out of whack from talking with the Hulk when he picked up something by the scepter. "What the?"

"Kid, what's wrong?" Tony asked as Will got up and walked over to the scepter.

"Either I'm going crazy or I could have sworn I got a mental reading from the scepter." Will told them.

"What?" Dr. Banner asked as he got back to his feet. "Like a mental reading as in a person's mind?"

"Yeah." Will closed his eyes and used his telekinetic sense to scan his surroundings and picked up the minds of Dr. Banner and Tony but got a third bizarre one in the room and it was the scepter. "I'm not crazy. I'm getting a mental reading from the scepter…it's alive."

"That could be the unknown energy reading we've been picking up." Dr. Banner walked over to the computers to bring up the energy readings they picked up.

"Edi, scan the gem again. Run a structural and compositional analysis." Will pressed a few buttons on his computer and a beam scanned the jewel again.

"The Scepter is alien. There are elements I'm unable to quantify." Edi told them.

"So, there's elements you can?" Tony asked.

"The jewel in the scepter appears to be a protective housing for something inside, something powerful." Edi said.

"Any similarities to the Tesseract energy?" Dr. Banner asked.

"None. The energy inside the jewels appears to be something unique. But I believe I'm deciphering some kind of code." Edi told him.

"Are you sure about that?" Will asked.

"Seeing as how you created me with the help of Mr. Stark, I believe I'm operating at maximum efficiency so I'm positive about my results. Your hunch was right, Will. There appears to be something powerful inside the scepter similar to your unique mental abilities." Edi told them.

"That's why I could pick up on chatter, or whatever I call it when I scan a person's mind. This thing is…alive." Will said. Dr. Banner and Tony weren't sure about his wording, but his general point was right.

"It could be how Loki was able to use it to sway Dr. Selvig and Agent Barton's minds." Dr. Banner said.

"Only one way to find out." Will held his hand over the gem, closed his eyes and used his telepathy to interface with it.

His consciousness entered the gem where he was immediately met with a protective barrier like with Loki's mind that he couldn't break through. He tried as hard as he could but couldn't until the barrier opened up…like whatever he was trying to interface with let him enter. Will's subconscious form walked through the psychic door to see nothing but pitch-black emptiness when he saw a faint glow of a yellow stone. He slowly walked up to the stone and felt the psychic energy radiating from it.

"Not all that impressive." Will said to himself as he slowly reached his hand out and touched it…which was a big mistake as his mind was suddenly imbued with immense psychic energy.

In the real world, a yellow wisp of energy came out of the jewel and infected Will causing him to glow bright blue as his powers were in full affect. The shine was so bright that Dr. Banner and Tony needed to shield their eyes. "KID!" Tony shouted, unable to see what was happening. Will floated into the air and his brain was overloaded with information and energy. His eyes glowed yellow instead of blue and the psychic energy build-up got too much to the point where it unleashed a shockwave that knocked Tony and Dr. Banner back and sent Will flying through the windows of the lab and crashing down onto the bridge where he smashed into a chair and nearly hit Director Fury.

"Will!" Coulson shouted as he and Thor ran over to check on him. Thor turned him over on his side as Director Fury and Hill looked up to see Will had crashed through the window from the lab up above. Thor looked him over and couldn't see any physical wounds, but he wasn't regaining consciousness. Coulson checked his pulse and got a steady beat. "I got a pulse."

"Get him to the med bay, now!" Fury ordered. Thor picked up Will and Coulson showed him to the Med Bay.

Thor put Will on a gurney as Director Fury, Hill, Coulson, Romanoff, Captain Rogers, Dr. Banner and Tony watched as the doctors and medics looked over him.

"What on earth happened up there?" Fury asked.

"Will got a mental reading from the scepter. Whatever that jewel is, it has similar abilities to him. It's probably how Loki was able to use it to turn Dr. Selvig and Agent Barton." Dr. Banner told him.

"The kid tried to interface with it, but something happened." Tony told him.

"What happened?" Hill asked.

"We don't know. One moment he's fine, the next moment his powers act up and he gets flung from the window." Dr. Banner said.

"Is he alive?" Steve asked as the doctor walked over to them.

"Agent Detmer is physically fine. We've found no physical marks or damage and his pulse is steady. His heart is behaving normally, and his respiratory system is functioning fine. The initial cat scan we ran did show some abnormalities." The doctor handed over the tablet and it showed Will's brain scan. While he normally had an over-active brain activity given his abilities, this time was different. Will's brain activity was beyond off the charts and was acting like it was a nuclear reactor from the amount of activity and energy it was producing. Will's normal mind activity was like the Looney Tunes Road Runner, but this was like the Road Runner after 100 shots of caffeine.

"With all the information and activity in his brain, it's a miracle he's still alive." The Doctor said.

"What do you think caused this?" Fury asked.

"The influx of information and energy into his brain was too much for him to handle at once. In defense, his body put itself into some kind of coma…to allow him to heal and process the information." The Doctor explained to Fury.

"Is it permanent?" Fury asked.

"I'm not sure, Director. His body put itself in the coma so he could wake up in an hour or never. We just don't know." The doctor put it frankly.

"Monitor his condition constantly and don't leave him unattended. And remember, everything that happens with him is under Level 10 restricted level. This is never mentioned again or put in record." Fury ordered.

"Yes, sir." The doctor replied as he and his team got back to work. With nothing they could do, the others got back to what they were doing. Tony walked over and looked down at Will and put his hand on his arm.

"Wake up soon, kid." Tony said to him before leaving to go help Dr. Banner.

Line Break xxxxx

Inside Will's mind

Will's brain was undergoing a shift in power so intense that the feedback launched him from the lab and put him in a self-induced coma. While his body was perfectly fine, his mind was busy assimilating the new influx of psychic energy and getting stronger. Putting his body into a coma was a self-defense mechanism that allowed his brain to adapt to upgrade quicker and easier. Even though Will's eyes were closed with his coma, his eyes moved rapidly which indicated he was in REM sleep and was experiencing something very vivid.

A flurry of images were going through his head like when he was on Rook island when he entered the cave and got hit with all those past memories and future moments. The flurry of images including his past memories and things he's experienced in his past but they were moving so fast that he couldn't really keep track of them. Eventually, after what seemed like hours the flurry of images began to slow down but they changed to ones he wasn't familiar with.

"They were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we come here, battling like Bilge Snipe." "Like what?" "Bilge Snipe. You know huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?" "I don't think so." "Well, they are repulsive. And they trample everything in their path." "I'm asking, what are you prepared to do." "I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned." "Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It's a sign to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war." "What are we a team? No, we're a time bomb." "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away what are you?" "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Everything good about you came out of a bottle." "There is only the war."

Will looked and saw all the images were off the team and they seemed to be arguing. The images then changed to a massive battle in Midtown New York City and the team was there at the center of it, doing everything they could to stop the Chitauri, but he noticed he wasn't there. The portal was opened up above Stark Tower and the Chitauri poured out in droves. He saw the Hulk and Thor fighting against some kind of Leviathan while Iron Man and Captain America teamed up. He then saw Iron Man redirect a nuclear missile into the portal before falling through space…dead.

"TONY!" Will shouted as the images changed again and he found himself in a blank empty space before the surroundings changed and Will was in a dark, musty cave, lit with a fire and wall lights. There were weapon crates all over the place with STARK Industries logos. He looked around and saw Tony hard a work hammering something on an anvil. Will looked and noticed the Arc reactor in his chest was a different model then the one he currently had. Tony took the thing he was hammering and dipped it in treating oil before walking over and putting in on a table to reveal a helmet…a prototype Iron Man helmet. "I'm in Tony's memory."

The surrounding changed again and he found himself in some kind of ballerina studio that kept flickering…like something was changing. He saw a younger looking Romanoff training in combat as the surrounding area kept flickering from a ballerina studio into a combat training room. "This is where she trained." Will said to himself as the surroundings changed again into what looked like an old plane. He walked over and saw Captain America in his old World War 2 garb piloting the airplane into the water. "I'm in all their memories. I've never been able to do this so easily before."

The surrounding area changed yet again to reveal some icy tundra terrain and Will saw Thor fighting against large Frost Giants with Loki and other Asgardian Warriors. This must be before he came to Earth. The area changed again to reveal the slums of Brazil where Dr. Banner was residing in years ago when he was on the run. The area then split in half and changed into Harlem during the Hulk's fight against the Abomination. The area changed one last time to reveal some kind of hallway. Will seemed to be in some kind of office like back at the Triskelion but it was empty.

"Ok, whose memory is this?" Will asked himself as he looked around for some kind of clue when he heard a meow. He turned and saw a cat walking down the hall and up to a young looking Director Fury who didn't have an eyepatch. "Whoa, Director Fury before he was Director. I can't believe I'm the only one who's seeing this."

Will watched as the cat walked up to Fury and he began going gaga for the cat, petting him all over and being happy. Will's never seen Director Fury express any emotion except for anger, brooding anger, or reserved anger. "Oh, aren't you just the cutest thing. What's your name? Goose? Cool name for a cool cat." Fury said as he pet Goose all over.

"Goose? Either whoever named him really likes Top Gun or has a weird sense of humor." Will said to himself.

"Fury." He heard as he turned and what he saw made his heart and stomach drop. Standing there in the hallway was Carol Danvers, his birth mother dressed in a Nine-inch-Nails shirt and wearing a SHIELD Hat. "Come on."

"I'll be back." Fury pet Goose before following Carol.

"I was right. You did know more then you were letting on." Will concentrated to find the next set of memories after this. He needed to know more. The memory changed to reveal Carol and Fury in what looked like a prototype quinjet. They were flying very fast and were heading up straight with the force of the acceleration pushing against them. They heard a noise and turned their heads to see something.

"Looks like we got a stowaway." Fury said as it was Goose and the force of the quinjet propped him up against a crate.

[Meow] Goose meowed as Carol leveled the quinjet out and decelerated. "Hang on, Goose." Carol said as Goose plopped down on the ground and moved to the two of them, jumping into Carol's lap and got comfortable. "Oh, Goose."

She took him off his lap and put him on the ground. Goose jumped up and got comfortable on the quinjet's dashboard. "Who's a good kitty, huh? Huh, Goose? You are, Goose. That's right." Fury scratched Goose on the head when Carol handed him a file.

"See anyone you know?" She asked as he looked at the photo. Will walked over and saw the photo was taken in 1989, a year after he was born. "Funny story. I arrived on Hala near dead and no memory. That was six years ago."

"So, you think you're the pilot who went down with Dr. Lawson?" Fury asked.

"I'm saying the last person who saw them alive could probably tell us." Carol said.

"Maria Rambeau?" Fury asked as she nodded.

"So, how do we get to Louisiana?" She asked.

"Due east and hang a right over Memphis." Fury told her and looked over the rest of the file. With this being Fury's memory, Will was able to read over the information as well. Carol Danvers was a test pilot for Project Pegasus under the supervision of Dr. Lawson which was impressive considering the file said she had given birth a year earlier. Could this be the reason he never met her?

"That agent…that stopped the Skrulls from finding us?" Carol asked.

"Skrulls?" Will wondered what the hell a Skrull was.

"Coulson. The new guy. Guess he doesn't hate me yet." Fury said.

"Coulson knew too?" Will asked.

"Yeah, well give him time." Carol said.

"Well, I guess he had a feeling. Went with his gut against orders. It's a really hard thing to do but it's what keeps us human." Fury told her.

"I get in trouble for that…a lot." She said.

"Oh, I can see that about you." He said, causing her to laugh. "Rescuing the guy who sold you out to the Skrulls? I'm guessing that's not standard Kree operating procedure."

"She's Kree?" Will asked himself, now having more questions than before.

"Well, I won't tell your boss if you won't tell mine." She joked and Fury laughed. Will didn't think he'd ever see Fury laugh…at all. He thought he was born with that scowl on his face. And he could have sworn that he thought the two were flirting with one another.

The memories changed again, and this time Fury was in a house with Carol and two other women, a mother and child. He looked at the mother and recognized her from the file, Maria Rambeau. She was best friends with her mother and her daughter Monica. Monica was showing Carol a whole bunch of photos and old memories in an effort to try and rejogged her memory. Carol had one hell of a life. Fury watched as Carol looked over the photos before picking up a charred half of a dog-tag.

"That's all that survived the crash. Or so we thought." Maria said as Carol looked it over. Fury then noticed a medical file in the box and took it out and what he saw surprised him. He opened the file to see a birth certificate for baby boy born September 8th, 1988 and Carol was listed as the birthmother. The boy's birth name was William Alexander Danvers and his birthfather was listed as John Garrett.

"Here's something I think you should remember." He said as he handed her file. She took it and looked it over and read the medical files about her labor and there was even a photo of her in the hospital with her newborn baby boy.

"I…I have a son?" Carol asked as she and Fury looked at Maria.

"You met a guy at the bar we always go to. You normally stay away from one-night stands, but I guess there was something special about him." She said. "Soon enough you were pregnant, and you were beyond terrified…much like me when I was pregnant with Monica. But you were there for me and I was there for you through the entire thing."

"What happened?" She asked.

"You…you gave William up for adoption. You said that once you saw his face you knew you couldn't give him the life that he deserved. He deserved a loving family and a stable home and…you couldn't do that for him." Maria said as Carol looked at the picture of her child with fondness. "It was the hardest decision you ever had to make."

"Do you know where he is now?" Carol asked.

"The last time I checked…he was with his adopted parents in New Jersey." Maria told her. Carol began to get glimpses of her memory coming back and remember parts of this…and most importantly she remembers the emotions of that day. She touched her cheek and found it wet…she was crying.

The memory shifted again, and Carol, Fury, and Maria were in the house with a green-skinned, pointy eared alien talking to them.

"You know, you should really be more kind to your neighbors. You don't know when you'll need to borrow some sugar." Talos told them as Fury pointed his pistol right at his head while the alien casually sipped a soda. Will looked and saw Carol's fights glowing yellow/orange.

"What the frack?" Will said outloud.

"Hang on a sec before you go swinging those jazz hands around, making a mess in your friends house, it's a lovely home by the way." Talos said as Maria looked out the window. Fury looked as well so Will could see that he saw Monica was outside with Maria. "We wouldn't harm a hair on the girl. Just, don't kill me. That'll really complicate the situation."

"I'm about five seconds from complicating that wall with some ugly-ass squirrel brains." Fury warned him.

"I'm sorry I simmed your boss but now I stand before you as my truth self, without deception." Talos told them.

"And who is that out there?" Carol asked.

"Ok, fair point but I'm sure that you understand I had to take some precautions. I saw you crush twenty of my best men with your hands bound. I just want to talk." Talos tried to sue for peace.

"The last time we talked I ended up hanging from my ankles." Carol told him.

"That's before I knew who you were. Before I knew what made you different than the others. I have an audio recording from Pegasus of your voice from a plane crash six years ago on a device I believe you call a black box." Talos said.

"They told me it was destroyed in the crash. How did you get it?" Maria asked.

"Does she not understand? Young lady, I have a special skill that allows me to get into places I'm not allowed to be in." Talos replied.

"Call me young lady again and I'm gonna put my foot in a place it's not supposed to be." She said as Talos was just confused.

"Am I supposed to guess where that is?" He questioned.

"Your ass." Fury and Carol said.

"Ok, I get it. We're all a little on edge here but look I just need your help regarding some coordinates. If you sit down and listen to this, I guarantee you it'll be worth your while." Talos begged her.

Carol was standing her ground, but the offer seemed to have a positive. She looked outside to the Skrull with Monica. "Call your buddy back inside and I'll listen."

"Deal." Talos agreed when Goose walked up and brushed again him, he jumped back in fear and shock. "Oh my god! Get that thing away from me! How'd it get in here?!"

Maria, Fury, and Carol were confused as Goose was calmly sitting on the ground near Talos but the Skrull was afraid of him like it was a rapid animal. "The Cat?" Carol asked as she picked him and Talos quickly backed away. "This isn't what you're afraid of, is it?"

"That's not a cat, that's a Flerken." Talos told them.

"What the frak's a Flerken?" Will asked as the memory changed again. This time the memory was of Fury and Maria in some kind of spaceship being led at gunpoint by two blue-skinned aliens that Will remembered from his visions. They were Kree.

Fury and Maria fought back and tried to free themselves but before the Kree could kill them, a bright glowing yellow object crashed into them and threw them into the wall. The glow dissipated and it was revealed to be Carol in a red, blue, and gold uniform…and she was glowing. "Huh, so that's where I get it from." Will said to himself.

"You know you're glowing, right?" Fury asked.

"I'll explain later." Carol said as she opened the lunchbox to reveal a blue Cube, the Tesseract.

"The Tesseract." Will was shocked to see it there. "What the actual hell is going on?"

"Take the Tesseract. Leave the lunchbox." Carol said as Fury removed Goose's muzzle.

"Me?" Fury asked as she nodded. "I'm not touching that thing!"

"You want me to get you an oven mitt?" Carol asked as Goose's mouth opened up to reveal a monstrous collection of tentacles that grabbed the Tesseract and swallowed it whole. Fury dropped Goose in shock seeing the small cat swallow the Cube, but it seemed like Goose didn't care at all and was too busy licking his fur.

"I will never be able to un-see that." Will said to himself.

"Take the Skrulls in the quadjet and go. And take the Flerken with you." Carol said she left.

"What about you?" Maria asked.

"I'll buy you some time." Carol replied.

"I'm picking you up now." Fury said to Goose and carefully picked him up.

The memory changed again, and it was of Fury and Goose in the quadjet. "That was a close call, huh Goosey? Huh? Those bad guys still in there somewhere?" He asked as he looked at Goose's stomach. Goose must not have liked the extra holding because he scratched Fury on his left eye. "OH, MOTHER FLERKEN!"

"You ok?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, it's just a scratch." Fury told her as he touched his eye.

"No." Talos and the other Skrulls shook their head no. It was a lot more than a scratch.

"You're kidding me? That's how he lost his eye? I thought he lost it during a mission when an enemy dug it out with a knife." Will laughed to himself at how Fury, the most badass and decorated spy of all of SHIELD lost his eye to a cat, sorry Flerken. "Oh my god, if this ever got out Fury would not be able to live with it. He would kill me for sure."

The memory changed one last time and Will found himself in a familiar looking park on a summer day. He looked around and recognized the tree with the tire swing, the playground and jungle gym and woodchips play area. "No way, this the park on Adam's street back in Atlantic City. I spent every day of the summer here until I was 14." Will looked in the park and saw a younger version of his parents in the park with a 7-year old version of himself and his friends. It was their regular summer picnic. His mom was on the blanket getting lunch ready along with the other parents while he and his dad played baseball with his friends. "Is this one of my memories?"

"That's him?" He heard as he turned around and saw Fury and Carol leaning against the park's fence and watched Will play.

"That's him." Carol replied as she watched her son playing baseball and saw he was happy. Younger Will was completely unaware she was watching him. "He looks so happy."

"He looks like a good kid." Fury said as Carol nodded. "Do you want to go talk to him?"

Carol contemplated his suggestion but decided against it. "No." She said as she looked at him. "Giving him up what the hardest decision I ever had to make…but it was for the best. I would love nothing more than to somehow be a part of his life but if the last few days have taught me anything…it's not possible. He deserves a normal life. I can never give him that."

"Maybe you should go talk to him once before you leave. You don't know how long you'll be gone." Fury said as a small wiffleball flew over the fence near them. Carol picked up the wiffle ball as Will ran over.

"Hi." He said with a smile as she smiled at him. "Can I have my ball back, please?"

"Here you go." She said as she handed it to him, and he smiled.

"Thank you." He said as he looked at her clothes. "I like your clothes."

She smiled as she was still wearing her uniform but had her flight jacket over it. "Thank you. I like your shirt." Carol said as he smiled and looked down at his Power Ranger shirt.

"Thanks. I hope to be like them when I grow up. A superhero." He said as she chuckled and pat his head.

"I think that'll happen." She said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Will, lunch is ready!" Mary shouted as she waved him over.

"I'm coming. Bye lady, bye Mister." Will waved goodbye and ran over to his parents.

"I met her all those years ago. I didn't know I did." Will said to himself as he saw Carol wipe her eyes.

"That alone was enough." Carol said. "Maybe one day when all of this is over…I can try and be a part of his life."

"I'll keep an eye on him." Fury said as Carol looked at him. "Just to make sure he stays out of trouble."

"Thank you, Fury." Carol replied as the memory faded away.

"None of it was by accident. Fury knew who I was. He didn't just make me a SHIELD agent because of my powers…he was looking out for me." Will came to this realization with all the new information he got from Fury's memories. He thought that everything's Fury has done, the training and special treatment he's gotten at SHIELD that no other agent would get was because of his power but it wasn't. It was because of the promise to his birth mother. All of this was because Fury owed her. He had a newfound respect for Fury after seeing everything.

"Ok. Enough of the trip down memory lane. Time to wake up." Will concentrated as he began glowing blue, similarly to how Carol glowed when she activated her powers and he was brought out of whatever memory limbo he was in.

Line Break xxxxx

Will opened his eyes and found himself standing back on the bridge of the helicarrier in his Aegis gear with his hood and mask down. He looked around and saw some shards of broken glass on the ground but looked up and saw the broken windows to the lab he was flung through. "Oh, good. I'm back." Will said as he saw Director Fury at a computer screen with Hill and a technician that detected a computer virus hacking into their system. "Director Fury, I'm back and I'm ready for action."

Director Fury just walked away like he didn't hear him at all. "Director Fury?" He called out when Thor came by and passed right through him like he was a ghost. "What the hell?"

He pats himself down to see if he was alive and he felt fine but no one else could see him, it was like he wasn't there. Will walked over to Hill and slowly reached his hand out to touch her shoulder but his hand phased right through her like a ghost. He reached his hand over to her face and he passed right through. He saw her shudder a bit like a breeze went by but she didn't notice him at all. "Oh my god…I'm dead." Will said to himself and began to freak out. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. Next time a mysterious alien artifact houses some kind of mysterious power source, don't screw with it."

He began slapping his forehead and kicking himself because of his stupid decision and the ultimate price he paid. After about ten full minutes of shouting, cursing, and kicking himself, he slumped to the ground in total despair…completely unaware of what to do next. "Well, upside to being a ghost is I don't have to worry about taxes…or food. Downside…no food and I'm dead." Will threw his head back to bang it against the wall but just phased through it. "Another downside…that."

He stood up off the ground, wondering if he could phase through walls and people why didn't he phase through the ground but put that to the back of his head when he overheard Hill talk.

"Any update on Agent Detmer's condition?" She called to the medbay.

"His brain activity has gone down but is still unresponsive. We'll continue to monitor the situation." The doctor replied.

"Keep me informed." Hill told him.

"Condition?" Will made his way over to the medbay and saw himself lying in a gurney, hooked up to an EKG with doctors monitoring his condition. "Ok, I'm not dead…just…I have no idea what's happening to me."

He looked at the EKG and saw his heartbeat was steady which is a good thing and the brain scans showed activity. "Ok, so I'm not dead." Will said as a doctor walked over and inserted a needle into his left arm to draw some blood. Will's left arm flared up and felt a prick. "Ok, felt that so I'm definitely not dead. So what the hell happened to me?"

He looked at his body and glanced at his face. "I forgot to shave. I have some stubble." He touched his chin and felt the little hairs. "Ok, so I'm not dead because my body is alive and well. My heart's beating and my brain's alive and I felt that prick which meant whatever happens to my real body happens to…whatever I am. Ghost is out of the option. Maybe it's some out of body thing. Wait, do I still have my powers?"

Will looked at a pen and clipboard on a table and held his hand out but nothing. "Ok, telekinesis not-check." He then focused his telepathy and read the mind of the doctor which caused an uptick in brain activity. "Ok, telepathy check. Now, how do I get back in my body?" He looked at his body and then at his mouth. "I sure hope I don't have to go in that way." He then looked at his butt. "Or the other way."

Before he could even entertain another idea of getting back his body, his telepathic sense picked up some psychic rumbles in the lab. "Hello, what's this?" He floated through the walls of the helicarrier and back up into the lab to see the team assembled and heard something about using the Tesseract to make weapons.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Romanoff.

"Do you want to think about removing yourself from this situation?" Romanoff asked him.

"Heh, I was in Kolkata, I was pretty well removed." Banner told her.

"Loki is manipulating you." Romanoff said.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Banner asked.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Romanoff said.

"Yes, I came because Will gave me a chance like a human being and he's in the medbay in a coma because of all of this. So, I would like to know what he risked his life for and why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction?" Banner asked.

"Because of him." Fury pointed to Thor which made everyone confused as to why SHIELD needed weapons against him.

"Me?" Thor asked.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly…hilariously outgunned." Fury told them.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor told him.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury asked. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. That can't be controlled. And my best agent against those threats is sitting in the medbay in a coma with the World Security Council breathing down my next every second to find out who he is. I needed other means to control those threats."

"Like you controlled the Cube and the scepter? It's because of those things that Will's in a coma. He followed orders like a good soldier and paid the price." Steve told him.

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

"A higher form?" Steve asked.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with a—""Nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down." Tony said sarcastically.

"Remind me again, how you made your fortune Stark?" Fury shot back.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep in—Wait, hold on. How is this now about me? I'm sorry, isn't everything? I thought humans were more involved than this. Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up? You treat your champions with such mistrust. You are not my champions Are you boys really that naïve? SHIELD monitors potential threats. And Captain America is on threat watch? We all are. That is not your concern, Doctor. You're on that list? Tell me if he's above or below Barbara Streisand? Stark, so help me god if you make one more comment. Oh, he threatened me. Verbal threat. I feel threatened." Will just listened to them all argue at one another.

"Wow, it's like listening to a bunch of four-year olds argue and not in the funny kind of way." Will said as he looked at the audience with a knowing wink, breaking the fourth-wall for a bit before getting back to the matter at hand. "Ok, what to do about this?"

"You speak of control yet you court chaos." Thor told Fury.

"That's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're…we're a time bomb." Banner said.

"You need to step away." Fury warned him.

"Why shouldn't the guy be allowed to let off a little steam?" Tony asked. He put his hand on Steve's shoulder but Steve shrugged him off.

"You know damn well why. Back off." Steve warned him.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony told him.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off what are you?" Steve asked.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony replied as Romanoff shrugged.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. And I've seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Steve said.

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony told him causing Steve to chuckle.

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero." Steve told him.

"A hero, like you?" Tony asked. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Steve smirked as he stood up with Tony. "So put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

"You people are so petty…and tiny." Thor commented.

"Great, this is getting worse." Will said when he picked up more psychic energy radiating from the Scepter. He closed his eyes and focused and found it was emitting a discrete amount of energy that was affecting the limbic system of the brain, i.e. the part of the brain where anger and aggression originate from. It wasn't generating anger or aggression in the team, it was just enhancing what was already there. These people had issues but the scepter was making them more volatile. "I better fix this quick."

"Yeah, this is a team." Banner commented.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner to—""Where? You rented my room." Banner said.

"The cell was just in case—""In case you needed to kill me but you can't. I know, I tried." Banner told them as no one was expecting that answer. "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other gut spit it out. So I moved on, focused on helping other people and I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff, you want to know how I stay calm?!"

"CALM DOWN ALL OF YOU!" Will telepathically shouted as he unleashed a mental inducement wave that counteracted the scepter's energy and calmed them all down. They all felt a rush of energy wash over them and they all began to feel better.

"What on earth was that?" Dr. Banner asked as he found he was holding the scepter and quickly put it down.

"What happened?" Thor asked.

"I don't know, but I feel…calmer." Romanoff said when all of a sudden Will materialized in front of them. His form was spiritual in nature, like a ghost but he was there and they could see him.

"My god, after what I just watched all of you could do with some therapy." Will said.

"Kid?" Tony asked as Will looked at him.

"You can see me?" Will asked as they all nodded. "Oh, that's a good sign. I think I'm getting a hang of…whatever this is."

"Agent Detmer, what happened?" Fury asked.

"I'm not sure. The last thing I remember was interfacing with the scepter, which by the way, don't touch." Will said as Dr. Banner and everyone took a step back. "I got a bunch of information downloaded into my brain at that moment…a lot of information. Then I woke up in memories and the next thing I know I appeared on the bridge but no one could see me."

"What do you mean no one could see you?" Steve asked.

"I mean, since I appeared on the bridge Thor literally walked right through me and I put my hand through Hill's head like I was some kind of ghost." Will said as Tony walked over and tried to put his hand on Will's shoulder and to his word, he went right through. "Dammit, I was hoping the problem was over."

"What about your body?" Fury asked.

"I checked on it in the medbay and I'm still there. My body's fine and whatever impacts my body affects me here so I'm not sure what this is." Will said as Tony kept messing with him, pushing his hand through Will's head and body. "Tony, would you please stop that?"

"Sorry." Tony pulled his hand away

"Anyway, I detected psychic tremors and found out that the scepter was emitting low-level psychic energy that was stimulating your limbic system and causing your aggression to act out. So, I sent out a psychic wave to counteract it and put you guys back to normal." Will told them.

"Your powers are impressive for a mortal. And I believe I have an explanation as to your appearance. It's an ability known as Astral Projection where the user projects their consciousness from their body. Loki has used it from time to time in our youth as have other gifted magical users in Asgard." Thor said as the computer beeped which indicated it found the Tesseract so Dr. Banner walked over to check the data.

"Ok, so I know this ability but how do I get back into my body?" Will asked.

"Oh my god." Dr. Banner said as he looked at the data and saw the location of the Tesseract and where the portal would open. Before anyone could ask where the location was, Will's danger sense went off big time.

"GET DOWN!" He shouted as a massive explosion shook the helicarrier and blew up the lab. The explosion knocked everyone to the ground or out of the room. Romanoff and Dr. Banner were blasted out of the lab and crashed down into the sub levels. The explosion destroyed part of the rear left turbine and damaged who knows what else.

"Put on the suit." Steve told Tony.

"Yeah." Tony replied as they left the lab.

All the technicians and analysts got to work and followed their training while the security team armed themselves. "HILL!" Fury shouted.

"External detonation. Number three engine is down. Can they get it running?" Hill ran over to a technician who was monitoring the status of the turbine. "Talk to me."

"Turbine looks mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there to make repairs while we're in the air." The technician told her.

"If we won't lost one more engine, we won't be." She said as she contacted Fury. "Somebody's got to get outside and patch that engine."

"Stark, you copy that?" Fury asked.

"I'm on it." He replied.

"Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section then get to the armory." Fury ordered. "Detmer, go topside and find out what's going on."

"On it!" He floated up through the floors of the helicarrier.

"Romanoff!" Fury shouted over the comms, hoping she would respond.

"We're ok." She said as she looked at Dr. Banner and saw him grunting in anger. The scepter had been knocked down next to them and the jewel was glowing. Romanoff wasn't a psychic but she guessed the jewel might be affecting him. "We're ok, right?"

Will floated up through the floors and popped his head out onto the flight deck to see a quinjet. He flew over to the quinjet and saw empty SHIELD gear containers so he rushed back down to the Director who was on the bridge. "Director, unknown hostiles are wearing SHIELD gear! They'll blend in!"

"Roger that. Find Romanoff and make sure Banner doesn't lose control!" Fury ordered as Will flew down through the floor and saw Romanoff with her leg pinned under a beam and Dr. Banner undergoing his Hulk transformation. Romanoff managed to pull her leg free but the Hulk was free as well.

"Aw crap." Will said to himself as he tried to calm him down but his mind was so full of hate and anger…and there was something else there that was blocking him. Will figured it must be the scepter that did this to him. "Hey, there buddy. I don't suppose you remember me? You know, human trying to help."

[ROAR!] "Guess not!" The Hulk charged at them but since Will was in Astra Projection he was like a ghost so the Hulk went right through him and chased after Romanoff. "Hulk, please calm down! The scepter's doing this to you!"

The Hulk just swung his arms and tried to crush him which did nothing but piss him off more. "GHOSTY MAN INSULTS HULK! HULK SMASHES GHOSTY MAN!" Hulk shouted as he was destroying the ship in an attempt to kill him but kept hitting nothing.

"Calm down! I want to help you!" He tried to enter the Hulk's mind but all the rage and anger was like trying to navigate a mine field while wearing drunk goggles. The good thing about this was that the Hulk's attention was focused on him which let Romanoff slip away. Before the Hulk could destroy more of the ship, Thor tackled him into the jet repair bay and the two began to duke it out in a fist fight.

Will watched the two fighting which led to more of the helicarrier getting destroyed. He kept trying to break through the Hulk's mind but all the fighting made him angrier which made his job even harder. The two smashed into one of the empty labs and Thor was getting tossed around repeatedly when one of the escort jets opened fire on the Hulk, getting his attention. That led to the Hulk jumping from the carrier and destroying the jet but the explosion knocked Hulk to the ground.

"Oh, that's going to hurt." Will said to himself as Thor quickly ran to the detention facility to make sure Loki didn't get out.

"We've got hostiles heading to the medical bay!" One of the agents reported over the intercom system.

"My body!" Will quickly flew through the carrier and saw two of the imposter SHIELD agents gun down the doctors with no mercy. One of them then pointed his pistol right at Will's head and was ready to kill him then and there. "NO!"

Will acted on instinct and dove into his body. The mercenary pulled the hammer back and was ready to press the trigger when Will's eyes shot up, grabbed the pistol and moved it away from his face at the last second. The bullet hit his gurney so Will grabbed the merc's wrist, twisted it, grabbed the pistol slide and yanked it off and stabbed it into the merc's neck. He jumped from the gurney and used the merc's body as a shield as his friend unloaded his assault rifle at him. Will slid forward and kicked out the merc's leg, grabbed his wrist and took him to the ground before putting him in a triangle choke. The mercenary tried to get free but Will's grip was too strong and then with the right amount of force, he snapped the mercenary's neck like it was a toothpick.

He kicked the dead body to the side and got on all fours before a huge wave of nausea hit him and he puked up his guts. "Ugh. Ok, Astra Projection is cool, but being separated from your body for too long is bad." Will said to himself as he puked up one more time.

Edi beeped which indicated that Fury was contacting everyone on a SHIELD wide communication channel. "Agent Coulson is down."

"Medical team is on its way to your location." An agent reported.

"They're already here…they called it." Fury somberly told them.

Barton had been captured and was being looked over by Romanoff while Hill coordinated the clean-up and repair teams. Will, Tony, and Steve were sitting at the conference Table as Fury looked over some old playing cards stained with blood. They were mourning the loss of one of their own. For Will it was tough because Coulson has been there even before he became an agent. He was a friend and now he was gone.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never got you to sign them." Fury tossed the cards onto the table for them to see. Some of them were stained with blood. Steve reached over and took one of the cards and looked it over. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the Cube, Banner, and Thor…I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."

Fury walked over to them. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Detmer know this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people and see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Tony got up and walked out of the room. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

Will got up to follow Tony but stopped and looked back at Fury. "Get the communication system back up as quickly as you can and give the evacuation order for Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs." Will told him as Fury, Hill, and Steve were confused. "Short version, I had a vision and Loki plans to open up the portal over STARK Tower. Get communications up and order evacuations and the National Guard. I got a team to bring together. Cap, you coming?"

Steve nodded and got up to follow him. "And Director." Will said as Fury looked at him. "When I get back, you and I are going to have a talk."

"About what?" Fury asked.

"May, 1995 Los Angeles, California. Project Pegasus and the Flerken incident." Will said as Fury actually adopted a shocked expression. "I want answers when I get back."

Will and Steve left to go find Tony who was in the cell-room where Loki was and where Coulson died. Tony was just staring down the hole, figuring out his next move. "Tony." Will called out.

"Coulson was an idiot." Tony said.

"Why? For believing in us?" Steve asked.

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony corrected him.

"Coulson knew what he signed up. He went up against him knowing the risk." Will said.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…" Tony said.

"Believe me, Tony, no one would like to go over the situation constantly in their head to think of what could have happened if we acted differently but we can't." Will told him. "Sometimes there isn't a way out.

"Yeah, where have I heard that before?" Tony commented.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked Tony turned at him.

"We are not soldiers." He snapped at him before he calmed down a bit. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"And I'm not asking you two. Ok, everything that happened here today is as much his fault as it is Loki's but right now we need to regroup together or Coulson will have died for nothing." Will told him. "I know where Loki is and where he plans to open the portal. He plans on using the Arc reactor at STARK tower to power the portal device and an alien army will stampede through everything in their sights. SHIELD can't do anything and neither can the army so it's up to us."

Tony and Steve looked at Will and he made good points. Leave it to the kid to be the sensible one. "Coulson brought me into SHIELD years ago and I'm not going to betray his belief in me or this team by wallowing in my own self-pity and doing nothing." Will said as he looked at the two. "So, are you two old men going to sack up for a fight or does the kid have to do everything alone?"

Steve and Tony looked at one another and nodded. "All right, what's the plan?" Tony asked.

"I'm heading there now. I can fly and I'll try and stop Loki but if that doesn't work I'm going to need help. Get suited up and bring everything you got for a fight. Tony, you might need a new suit." Will said.

"Jarvis, did you hear the kid?" Tony spoke into his phone.

"Sir, the Mark 7 is not yet ready for—""Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock here." Tony told him.

"All right, see you geezers there." Will left the room with a smirk on his face as he pulled up his hood and activated his mask.

Steve walked into Romanoff's where she was looking after Barton. "Time to go." He told her.

"Go where?" She asked.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" He asked. Barton walked out of the bathroom with a towel in his hands.

"I can." Barton said as Steve looked at Romanoff who nodded, he was ready.

"You got a suit?" Barton nodded in response. "Then suit up."

Captain America grabbed his shield, Hawkeye outfitted himself with an extra capacity quiver, Romanoff put on her Widow's bite gauntlets and Tony was in the engineering bay repairing the Mark 6 suit as best he could to make it to New York. Thor, who was on his own, summoned a bolt of lightning and donned his armor.

Fury was on the bridge looking at the cards as Hill walked up to him. "Agent Hill."

"Sir, those cards…they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket." Hill said.

"They needed the push." Fury said as Hill looked at him.

"We have an unsanctioned departure from Bay 4!" The intercom system went off as Hill and Fury saw Aegis fly out of the Helicarrier in a hurry.

"Get our communications back up faster. I wanted them up half an hour ago. I want eyes on everything." Fury told her.

"Yes, sir." She replied and about 20 minutes later another announcement went off that another unsanctioned departure occurred from Bay 6 where Iron Man and a quinjet took off. It was up to the Avengers now to stop Loki.

Line Break xxxxx

Manhattan, New York City

Aegis flew through the air at over Mach 1 and in about 5 minutes saw the Statues of Liberty come into view. He was nearing New York and hopefully would get there in time. "Edi, has the evacuation already begun?"

"Yes, the outer boroughs are in the middle of evacuation as is Manhattan but that will take longer given the population density and traffic, of course." Edi replied, bringing up police chatter and progress of the evacuation out of the city via the tunnels or bridges.

"The one thing you can depend on is New York Traffic. Jarvis, please tell me we got lucky and you shut off the reactor in time and all I have to deal with is Loki?" He hoped.

"I'm afraid you're luck hasn't improved since Rook Island, Mr. Detmer." Jarvis informed him as Will flew through Manhattan to STARK tower where he saw Dr. Selvig and the Tesseract device all powered up. "I shut down the reactor two minutes ago but I'm afraid it's too late. The device is now self-sustaining."

"I really need to see someone about my bad luck." He thought to himself as he hovered in the air by the device. "Dr. Selvig, shut the device down! Loki's controlling you! You don't know what you're doing!"

"It's too late. It's can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe." Selvig shouted at him with crazy in his eyes.

"Ok, he's officially lost it." Aegis attempted to crush the device with his telekinesis but a blue barrier flared up around the device and released a shockwave that knocked him back and knocked out Dr. Selvig.

"The barrier around the device is made up a quantum tachyon energy preventing your telekinesis from affecting it. It's un-breachable." EDI told him.

"Why can't anything ever be easy?" He asked himself when he saw Loki on the balcony of the top floor of the tower. "Edi, Jarvis, work up a way to get through that barrier. It's time Loki is put in his place."

He floated down to the platform and walked into Tony's private floor as Loki strolled in, all cocky and smug. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity?" Loki asked, hoping for a yes as Will retracted his mask.

"Uh, no. You're way past that. Personally, I'm ready to kick your ass right now and call it a day but seeing as how I am part of a huge bureaucratic organization, I have to at least ask one last time if you're willing to surrender." Will walked over to the bar in a fairly relaxed demeanor.

"Oh, you're funny and stalling me won't change anything." Loki told him.

"Well, I did as I was trained." Will reached over and grabbed a glass and a bottle of Tony's fancy scotch. "I think a nice drink before the ass-kicking starts is in order. And seeing as how I can't get drunk, it's no big deal."

Loki sneered at him and walked over to the window. "The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." Will filled up the glass and downed in one gulp. "Oh, that is very good." He put the glass and bottle down on the table and sat on the counter. "I'll admit the name was a little too Saturday-morning Cartoon for me but considering my birthmother was the inspiration for the team…it's kind of grown on me. Besides, what else are you going to name Earth's Mightiest Heroes? The Super Friends? Defenders was not a bad idea, but I'll save that for another team."

"Yes, I've met them." Loki said which made Will chuckle a bit.

"The team can be a little difficult and you masterfully put them against one another with that scepter of yours. You put those kinds of egos and personalities together…well, it's like trying to make the Road Runner get along with Wile E Coyote. But we got back into a groove." Will joked. "Should we run down the list of the team? Let's: First off, Thor, the god of Thunder, rightful king of Asgard and your brother who is much nicer than you, by the way. Second, Tony Stark, Iron Man, genius, billionaire, playboy who will be developing technology we'll be using for the next century and created a super suit that could let him take over a small country. Third, Steve Rogers, the World War 2 super soldier who took down Hydra and saved the world. Fourth, Dr. Bruce Banner also known as the Hulk who is going to be very pissed at you and who would like nothing more than stomping your bones into dust. Fifth and Sixth, Black Widow and Hawkeye, two master assassins who are the peak of human potential and are ready for some payback. And your dumbass pissed off every single of them."

"That was the plan." Loki smirked.

"Kind of a stupid plan. That's the thing with you bad guys. You just lost to antagonize the hero when just killing us would be easier." Will told him as he jumped off the counter. "When they come, and they are…they're gonna want revenge."

"I have an army." Loki told him.

"We have a Hulk." Will shot back.

"Oh, I thought the beast had wondered off." Loki said.

"Oh, no he's just getting some air but you completely overstepped yourself. There will be no throne, no kingdom for you to rule, none of it." Will said in anger. "I may not be able to stop your army from invading but I can promise you one thing is that my team and I will do whatever it takes to avenge what you've done."

Loki walked up to Will and held up the scepter. "How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki moved the scepter to touch his chest, but Will shot up his hand and grabbed the blade, stopping Loki from touching his heart. Loki tried to push and push, but Will wasn't budging, and began to feel the strain of pushing against the human. Will's hand was glowing blue and was using his psionic strength to over-power Loki and his telepathy to protect his mind from the scepter. Will's strength soon got to the point where his fingers began to dig into the blade and crack it.

"There's probably one other person I should have mentioned: me, William Alexander Danvers Detmer, Aegis, SHIELD Agent, Avenger, Inhuman, and the guy whose friend you killed." Will yanked the scepter out of Loki's hand and threw it into the wall. He pushed kicked Loki square in the chest and sent him crashing into the wall with enough force to make a massive hole. To Loki, it felt like getting punched by Thor. Will raised his hand and Loki was pulled out of the wall and towards Will who clotheslined him in the neck. Loki fell on his back and grabbed his throat in pain as Will picked him up and threw him into the ceiling. Loki dropped to the floor as Will picked him up and kneed him in the gut, grabbed his left arm and broke it, took out his Predator knife and stabbed Loki in the side making the Asgardian shout out in pain. He kneed him in the face and kicked him up into the ceiling again. Loki hit the ground face first as Will saw the blood on the knife.

"Guess Asgardians really aren't gods, just humans with god complexes." He picked Loki up and chokeslammed him into the ground one last time. Loki groaned in pain as Will began generating telekinetic energy into his right fist. His fist glowed blue and the air around it began to distort. He reared his fist back and punched Loki in the stomach and the force sent him through the floor and crashing into the floor below them. Will jumped down the hole he made and looked at Loki lying in the ground in shock, too much in pain to even move or speak. "That was for Phil Coulson, you son of a bitch."

Will was brought out of his little victory moment by a loud boom that came from outside. He flew up and landed on the balcony to see to see a beam of energy shoot up into the sky and a form a portal. Once it opened dozens of Chitauri attack gliders poured out into New York airspace in a short amount of time. Will watched and the portal was open for less then maybe six seconds and there were already a hundred.

"Ok, alien army. Time to go to work." He pulled up his hoodie and activated his mask and flew straight up to the portal just as a pod shot out of STARK Tower and flew east.

One of the Chitauri commanders gave a battle cry and began opening fire at the city with most of them shooting at Aegis with energy based weapons. Aegis raised a force field around himself with one hand and used his other to send out force pushes that destroyed the Chitauri gliders but there were a lot. The energy beams hit his force field and were stronger than any human based weapons he had encountered up to that point but it was staying strong. He swiped his hand and destroyed a dozen gliders with a force wave but more kept coming and they began diverging to the side and heading towards the buildings and civilians.

"Dammit!" Aegis flew down and chased after some Chitauri gliders that did a strafing run by Grand Central Terminal, destroying cars and sending the civilians away in fright. Will flung an empty taxi into the air and some Chitauri crashed into it but he had to get busy. More Chitauri began attacking civilians who panicked and ran away as fast as they could or rushed into buildings for safety. Aegis flew around a building and fired two telekinetic blasts that blasted 8 gliders. He flew through the air with some Chitauri giving chase when they were blasted to pieces and he saw Iron Man fly up in his new Mark 7 armor.

"Hey, kid. Looks like you could use some help." Iron Man said.

"Well, I've never been one to say no to a helping hand." Aegis replied as Iron Man nodded.

"All right, let's get to work." The two split apart at an intersection as the Chitauri chased after them. Iron Man fired his repulsor blasts and took down alien gliders one after another in quick succession. He flew up and activated his targeting computer. His shoulder pads opened up to reveal 48 mini-rockets that locked-on and killed more Chitauri. Aegis saw some Chitauri giving chase so he stopped suddenly and threw up a barrier that they crashed into and killed themselves. He picked up another empty car and used his telekinesis to disassemble it into dozens of metal pieces and used them like projectiles as he shot down more Chitauri gliders like he was skeet shooting. Once he ran out, he threw out his hand and the blue telekinetic energy formed into hard, bullet-shaped projectiles. He aimed and shot them at a charging group of Chitauri and blew them up into pieces.

"God I love new powers." He said to himself as he sent out a psionic explosion shockwave that destroyed another 20 gliders. His kills were likely in the triple digits at this point but the Chitauri were just endless. You kill one, two more fly through the portal to take its place.

He flew back over to the tower raised a force field over the portal to try and stop the Chitauri from pouring into earth. It worked as a few of the unlucky ones crashed into his barrier but once they saw the portal was blocked, they began unleashing hell on it with everything they had. Aegis refocused his attention on keeping the barrier strong and canceled the forcefield he had on himself. Iron Man kept the Chitauri busy for a bit, but it wouldn't be too long before they noticed what he was doing. He saw Thor land on the roof by the device and tried to smash it with his hammer, but the barrier unleashed a shockwave and knocked him back.

"THOR!" The god of Thunder looked up to see Aegis floating in the sky, attempting to keep the Chitauri from entering through the portal. "The device has a barrier around it! It won't bust open! Focus on the Chitauri! There are people getting hit in the crossfire!"

"What about Loki?!" Thor asked.

"Trust me, he's not going anywhere!" An energy beam zipped past his head, so he turned and saw four Chitauri gliders heading straight for him. He threw out his left hand and destroyed them with a force push. With his attention and focus split on keeping up the Chitauri from entering earth and protecting himself, the barrier over the portal weakened a bit which allowed some to slip through and once they did, they attacked him. An energy beam hit him in the chest and sent him flying into STARK Tower and crashing onto the balcony. Aegis's barrier over the portal dissipated and the Chitauri resumed their invasion.

Thor fired a bolt of lightning that zapped the gliders and sent them crashing into the STARK sign of the tower. He then jumped down to help Aegis. Will groaned in pain as he sat up and rubbed his chest, seeing that the energy beam had charred parts of his jacket, but it was still intact. Vibranium is just a godsend.

Thor held out his hand and Aegis took it as the god of thunder helped him back onto his feet. "Are you all right?" Thor asked and he nodded in response.

"I'm good. I've got Edi working on a solution to close the portal so until that time we need to keep these things from leaving the island." Aegis reached into his belt and took out an earpiece. "Here, take this. It'll let us stay in contact."

Thor took the earpiece and put it in his ear. "Best of luck, my friend." Thor spun his hammer and flew into the city to get into the fight. Aegis jumped off the balcony and flew towards the ground before landing on a passing Chitauri glider. He unsheathed his forearm blades and sliced the chain holding the gunner in place and kicked him off, sending him falling to his death. He then swiped at the pilot and took the alien's head clean off. Aegis took two explosive pellets and attached them to the glider before steering into a group of Chitauri and jumping out at the last second. He flew away from a big explosion when Edi detected a quinjet entering Manhattan.

"Will, we're on your 3 o'clock heading northeast!" Romanoff told him.

"What took you so long, did you stop for coffee? Swing up Park and don't miss!" Aegis told him as he flew towards Park street with a horde of Chitauri chasing him, seeing him as the main threat. He flew down the street as machine gun fire came in from the left and gunned down the Chitauri.

"Will, we have more incoming." Edi reported as his map showed more Chitauri heading to his location.

"Any update on how to get through the barrier around the Tesseract?" He asked as he destroyed 9 more gliders with a telekinetic energy blast.

"Still working on it." She told him.

"All right, let's keep our guests occupied." Aegis summoned up a telekinetic barrier and barreled through a group of Chitauri like a wrecking ball. Barton piloted the quinjet in hover mode as Romanoff shot down glider after glider with the minigun. Some Chitauri energy blasts hit the quinjet but Barton did his best to keep her flying until one blast hit the left turbine and it began spinning out of control.

Barton struggled to keep her level but the quinjet began to rapidly descend to the ground. They prepared for a crash landing when Aegis flew by and stopped it from hitting the side of a building. Romanoff and Barton sighed in relief as Aegis lowered the quinjet to the street and opened up the ramp.

"Thanks for that." Cap said as he, Romanoff and Barton walked out of the quinjet ready for the fight. "We've got to get back up there."

They heard a loud booming noise come from the portal and saw a giant snake-like Chitauri Leviathan fly out. The Leviathan roared as it flew to the ground above them so they could see it closer and saw it was armored. As it flew down the street, the side canopies on the armor opened up and Chitauri shock troops were launched onto the side of buildings or crashed straight into them.

"You guys see that right?" Aegis asked and they all nodded. "Right, just making sure."

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Cap asked.

"Seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" He flew over to the Leviathan and couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Not yet." Aegis told him.

"Just keep me posted." He replied. He then had Jarvis begin scanning the monster. "Jarvis, find me a soft spot."

The Chitauri on the side of the buildings began firing at Aegis, Cap, Widow, and Hawkeye so they took cover. Aegis took out his two Predator Shuriken and threw them into the air. They circled through the air alongside the buildings and sliced the Chitauri clean in two before circling around back to Aegis who caught them. He threw them one more time and cleaned up the side of the buildings.

"We've still got civilians trapped up here." Hawkeye said as he fired an arrow up into the air and killed a Chitauri glider pilot with a headshot and sent the glider crashing into the ground.

Cap looked down the street at the police who did their best to try and protect the civilians but were overwhelmed. "They're fish in a barrel down there."

"Edi, what's the status on the National Guard?" Aegis asked.

"National Guard units are still an hour out of the city." Edi informed him.

An energy beam whizzed past their heads because a group had converged on the street and were heading towards them. Aegis held his hand out towards the empty cars on the street and began to disassemble them into pieces. After a few seconds, he rearranged them into a shoulder-high barrier across the street to give Barton and Romanoff some extra cover. He lifted the quinjet off the ground and moved it into position by the barrier and spun up the mini-gun, mowing down the Chitauri but more kept coming. One of the aliens blasted the mini-gun into the pieces so Aegis got another idea.

"Hawkeye, explosive arrow!" Aegis threw the quinjet at the aliens as Hawkeye fired an explosive arrow and expertly hit the fuel tank location, blowing the thing up and taking the Chitauri with it.

"We got this. It's good, go." Widow told Cap.

"Do you think you can hold them off?" Cap asked Hawkeye as more Chitauri began to show up.

"Captain…" Barton pressed a few buttons on his bow and his quiver attached a special arrowhead to one of his arrows. "…it would be my genuine pleasure."

He popped up from the cover Aegis made and fired the arrow, hitting a Chitauri dead in the face. The arrow head fired a barrage of bullets in a circle that killed three more. "He's got this." Aegis took his gun off his belt and his Predator Combi stick as well. "Romanoff, here. Take these and don't lose them."

She nodded as she fired at the Chitauri with her twin Glocks while Hawkeye went to help the civilians who were trapped. Aegis unclipped another explosive pellet and threw it at the Chitauri, killing a few more. "Want a lift, Cap?"

"Send me flying." He replied and ran to the bridge.

"Tuck and roll!" Aegis lifted Cap off the ground and flung him through the air. Cap spun and rolled forward as he hit the ground, using the momentum to jump and flip forward and made his way over to the police. Aegis flew into the air to get back into the fight while Hawkeye and Widow defended themselves against a group of Chitauri.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" She said to him.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Hawkeye told her as he hit headshot after headshot.

Cap vaulted and jumped over empty cars and rubble, running as fast as his super soldier legs could take him through the battlefield. A whole squadron of police cars and officers had set up a small barricade at the end of a street and were doing their best to engage the alien force but they were outgunned and had no idea what was going on.

A police lieutenant rushed over to his sergeant to let him know what he learned. "It's gonna be an hour before the National Guard arrive!" He shouted as they ducked to avoid some energy blasts.

"National Guard? Does the Army know what's happening here?" His sergeant asked.

"Do we?" Both officers were startled when Cap landed on the hood of a police vehicle.

"You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they're going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basements or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th street." Cap ordered.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" The sergeant asked when a Chitauri strafing run blew up some cars. Two Chitauri jumped down onto the car with Cap to kill him. He bashed one away with his shield and quickly blocked energy blasts from the other before punching it away. He turned and bashed the other Chitauri in the face and stomped on its neck before turning around and slicing the Chitauri's energy gun off its hand and knocking it away. Cap looked at them and they quickly got to work. "I need men in those buildings. Lead the people down and away from the streets. We're gonna set up a perimeter as far back as 30th street."

"Here son, see what you can do with this." Cap tossed the Chitauri gun to the lieutenant who immediately recoiled seeing the severed alien arm.

Iron Man flew around a corner to see the Leviathan so he unloaded a round of flares that caught its attention. He flew down the street as the Leviathan roared and turned around, one of its armored wings dug into the side of a building and dropped some rubble on the street. "Ok, we got its attention. So what the hell is step two?" He asked as he quickly flew away.

"Tony, I see you at my three o'clock. Come up 46th and head straight at me." Aegis told him as he flew down the street.

"You got a plan, kid?" He asked as Aegis took out the two Vibranium orbs from his belt.

"I've got 51% of a plan." Aegis replied.

"Good enough for me. I'm coming at you." Iron Man said and turned on 46th street with the Leviathan right on his tail.

Aegis took the two orbs and morphed them together into a large 8-foot Demon Wind Shuriken. He got the idea from watching the Naruto anime and thought it would be a good idea for dealing with this. "I see you kid. I'm coming right at you." Iron Man said, flying down the street with the Leviathan right behind him.

"All right, head straight at me and on my signal dive straight down." Aegis flew straight at him and began spinning the massive Vibraniun shuriken like it was a rotary blade.

"Don't miss, kid." Iron man said and sped up.

"Get ready…" Aegis and Iron Man were getting closer and closer and when they were about 20 meters apart he acted. "NOW!"

Iron Man dove down quickly while the Leviathan kept flying forward. "Eat this!" Aegis threw the Demon Wind Shuriken at the alien like a flying buzz saw. With its size and speed, the Leviathan never stood a chance. It opened its mouth and the shuriken sliced through it and its entire body and came out the other side. The Leviathan crashed onto the ground, split down the middle as Iron Man hovered over to Aegis. Aegis recalled the shuriken back to his hand and caught the handle. "Make that 100% of a plan."

"Nicely done, kid." Iron Man said as they saw they had more Chitauri incoming. Aegis quickly separated the shuriken back into the two Vibranium orbs and shot them into the air like bullets and they ping-ponged off the Chitauri gliders. The Vibranium moving at such a rapid speed decimated the gliders and looked like a deadly game of ping-pong. There were easily 30 gliders and now they were all scraps and dead aliens. "Ok, now you're just showing off."

The two orbs returned to Aegis. "Can I just say how awesome I am?" He asked as the two got back into the fight. He flew around a corner with the two Vibranium orbs floating around him like he had his own energy field. He saw another group of Chitauri heading straight for him so he sent the orbs out and destroyed them.

Aegis saw a car swerve off the street and drive down an alleyway when he noticed a Chitauri soldier on the roof of a building. It fired at the car with his energy rifle so he flew down and tackled the alien off the roof and they crashed onto the car by accident. He quickly flipped off the roof, grabbed the Chitauri by the neck and ripped his head off with his bare hands. Two Chitauri entered the alley and fired their guns at him and the car so he quickly raised a shield. He looked back at the car and saw a man, woman, and an eleven-year old boy wearing glasses with an Iron Man shirt on. Aegis threw one of his Predator shuriken and it sliced the heads off the Chitauri in one throw before coming back to his hand. He flicked it twice and put it back into his belt. He looked back and saw the kid looking at him in awe, wonder, and maybe a smidge of fear.

"You…probably shouldn't have seen that." He said. He walked over and ripped off the car doors so the family could get out. "Ok, it's not safe on the streets. Get to the subway and stay underground."

"Thank you." The man thanked him as EDI's facial recognition identified the man as Benjamin Parker.

"Don't mention it." Aegis replied. He helped the kid out of the car when he saw a backpack with the name Peter Parker stitched on. It was stuck under the seat so he grabbed it and handed it to the kid. "Here you go, kid. Don't want to lose that."

"Thank you." May Parker replied as he nodded when he heard an explosion nearby.

"The 10th street tunnel is just ahead. Go now!" Aegis told them and flew up in the air and got back into the fight.

Back on the ground, Widow and Hawkeye were busy dealing with more Chitauri. A constant barrage of energy blasts had ripped some holes in the barrier Aegis brought up. The Chitauri closed in as Hawkeye shot another dead with a headshot and Romanoff fired the last clip in the HK pistol Will gave her. A Chitauri tried to attack her from behind but she ducked and sliced its knee with her knife. She got on top and put it in a triangle choke and zapped it in the neck with her bracelets, killing it and grabbing the energy spear it dropped. Barton sweep-kicked a Chitauri and stabbed it in the heart with one of his arrows and then ducked from an energy spear and smacked another Chitauri in the face before firing an arrow behind his back and nailed a headshot on a glider pilot that was flying by.

Romanoff flipped off a car and stabbed a Chitauri with the energy spear before spinning and stabbing another that tried to take her from behind. She took one her explosive pellets and jammed it into the alien's neck before spin kicking it into another and the two exploded. She impaled another Chitauri and forced it back before pressing the trigger and blasting it in half. She butterfly flipped and slashed more Chitauri as Barton slid forward and fired an arrow at a sniper before quickly turning and killing another Chitauri who tried to blindside him. Romanoff stabbed a Chitauri into a car but then quickly backed away to avoid having her hands sliced off. She pulled out the combi stick Will gave her and pressed the button and the spear tip shot out into Chitauri's face. She kicked its dead body off and sliced through a Chitauri energy spear with ease and sliced its head off. She looked and saw the metal on the spear was definitely not from this planet. Leave it to Will to have an alien spear in this kind of situation.

Cap jumped into the fray and shield bashed two Chitauri before smacking another away and throwing his shield and slicing the head off of another alien. The shield ricocheted back to his hand as the remaining Chitauri were zapped with bolts of lightning and Thor flew down and landed in front of them.

"What's the story upstairs?" Cap asked.

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable." Thor told him when Aegis floated down, landed next to them and deactivated his mask.

"Thor's right. Even I can't touch it. Edi and Jarvis are still working up a solution." Will told them.

"The kid's right, we've got to deal with these guys first." Iron Man radioed in.

"How do we do this?" Widow asked.

"As a team." Cap told them.

"I have some unfinished business with Loki." Thor said while Hawkeye retrieved some of the arrows he's used.

"Yeah? Well, get in line." Barton said. Will held his hand out and the rest of the spent arrows in the area moved in front of Barton, giving him his full arsenal.

"Trust me, Loki will keep for now. He's currently smashed into the floor up in the tower. He's not going anywhere but these things keep coming." Will said.

"Will's right. These things are still focused on us and we need to make sure it stays that way or these things could run wild. We'll have Stark and Will up top. They'll need us to…" Cap stopped his sentence when they heard the rumble of an engine and saw Dr. Banner ride up on an old motorcycle.

"So, this all seems horrible." Banner said.

"I've seen worse." Widow said as Banner looked at her.

"Sorry." He told her.

"No, we could use a little worse." She said as Will contacted Tony.

"Tony, Dr. Banner showed up." Will told him.

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Iron Man flew into view with another Leviathan right on his tale.

"Oh, crap." Will morphed his two Vibranium orbs into the Demon Wind Shuriken while Thor readied his hammer.

"Uh, I don't see how that's a party." Widow said as Dr. Banner walked towards the Leviathan.

"Dr. Banner…you two might have a strained relationship but now might be a good time to kiss and make-up and bring him out." Will said to him.

"Trust me, Will…." Dr. Banner turned to him. "He's been ready for this."

Dr. Banner began morphing into the Hulk with ease right in front of them and the Hulk punched the Leviathan in the face, killing it and slowing it down. The force of his punch caused the Leviathan's to skid to a stop and the tail to come up over the top like a fulcrum.

"Hold on!" Iron flew by and fired a rocket at an exposed part of the Leviathan. It blew the Leviathan into pieces as Will summoned a force field around the team to protect them from the explosion and any falling debris. The corpse of the Leviathan plopped onto the ground and all nearby Chitauri let out battle cries over their fallen and were more determined than ever to kill the humans.

The team grouped up together as the Hulk let out a massive roar, Hawkeye loaded an arrow on his bowstring, Thor spun his hammer, Widow loaded another pistol clip into her Glock and held the combi stick ready, Captain America fixed his shield on his arm, Aegis activated his mask and began glowing blue , and Iron Man landed with them.

The Avengers were now together

The portal in the sky made another booming sound and more Chitauri gliders arrived along with more Leviathans. The fight was only beginning.

"Guys." Widow brought their attention to the portal.

"What's the plan, Cap?" Aegis asked. Steve contemplated the situation and came up with his battle plan.

"All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you have the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash." Cap told them.

"Want to give me a lift?" Hawkeye asked Iron Man.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Iron Man grabbed his shoulder and flew him up to the roof of the building.

"Thor, Will, you two have got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down as best you can." Cap told them.

"Roger that. Let's go, Thor." Aegis and Thor flew up towards the portal.

Cap looked at Romanoff. "You and me, we stay here on the ground. Keep the fighting here. And Hulk." Hulk turned to him. "Smash."

Hulk smirked and then super-jumped into the air and smashed some Chitauri soldiers into the side of a building. He jumped to the building across the street and did the same thing. A Chitauri soldier blasted him but it did nothing and the Hulk slammed its head into the wall before grabbing the rest and throwing them away like ragdolls. He jumped high into the air as some gliders smashed into him but it just annoyed him as he punched a glider that was coming at him.

Thor flew up and landed on the top of the Chrysler Building. He raised his hammer to the sky and storm clouds appeared and soon a bolt of lightning struck him and the building. Aegis floated in the air and began glowing blue as he concentrated psychic energy into his hands. If Fury had been there, he would have had Déjà vu because Will looked exactly like Carol did all those years ago. Once he generated enough energy he unleashed a massive telekinetic energy blast more powerful than anything he fired before. Thor fired his lightning bolt and both beams destroyed Chitauri gliders but once they got close they combined together into a bright blue crackling energy beam. The beam obliterated 50 gliders and 5 Leviathans with ease.

The Battle for New York had just begun.

Line Break xxxxx

Helicarrier

Back over at the helicarrier, Fury and all the SHIELD agents were watching the news coverage on the invasion and the efforts of the Avengers. Fury watched news and camera coverage of Aegis in action and knew he made the right choice in having him on the team. Hill then walked over with a dower face.

"Sir, the Council is on." Hill told him. Fury was not looking forward to whatever they had to say and quickly activated their teleconference to get it over with. They were aware of the situation and wanted Director Fury to scramble a jet and launch a nuclear missile at the city but Fury was having none of it.

"Director Fury, the Council has made a decision." Councilwoman Hawley informed him.

"I recognize the Council has made a decision. But given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it." Fury told them.

"Director, you're closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet…" "That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population." Fury told him.

"If we don't hold them here, we lost everything." Councilman Mallick said.

"If I send that bird out we already have." Fury ended that conversation.

Manhattan, New York City

Back in New York city, the fight was in full swing as all of the Avengers were giving it their all against the invading army. Aegis flew around a corner and fired more telekinetic bullets and mowed down another group of Chitauri. "Will, you've got another group at your six o'clock." Hawkeye told him as Aegis send out a massive force wave and crushed them all. He flew down the street and jumped onto a glider and quickly killed the pilot and gunner with his forearm blades when he noticed odd electrical equipment on the Chitauri brains. He quickly did a mental download and got some important information.

"Ok, guys I got some good news and bad news." Aegis crashed the glider into another one and fired an energy blast at another glider group. "The good news is that all the Chitauri are linked mentally. They have some kind of neural link in their brains that allows them to communicate. The good news for us is if we destroy the master signal then they all die."

"Great, so where's the signal?" Widow asked as she skewered another alien with the combi stick.

"That's the bad news." Aegis said and destroyed another squadron of gliders with his Vibranium orbs. "It's through that portal and deep in space. Unless one of us can magically breathe with no oxygen or survive the pressure of deep space, we need to think of some way to cut out that signal."

"Jarvis, get to work on that." Iron Man told him as he blasted another glider.

"Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail." Hawkeye fired another arrow and killed another pilot.

"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets." Iron Man replied as he flew around a corner.

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn." Hawkeye quickly fired an arrow to his right without looking and blew up a glider. "Find a tight corner."

"I will roger that." Iron Man replied. Hawkeye aimed his arrow and hit a glider. The arrowhead leaked phosphorus and melted the glider in two, causing it to crash.

Iron Man slowed down and blasted another glider before speeding up around a corner where some gliders crashed into buildings. He quickly did a 180 and some unlucky Chitauri crashed. "Oh, boy." He flew down a narrow side alley and the confined space caused the Chitauri to crash into one another. Iron Man flew out the other side with no aliens chasing him. "Nice call. What else you got?"

"Well, Thor's taking on a squadron down on 6th." Hawkeye told him as Jarvis brought up the map.

"And he didn't invite me." Iron Man sped up to 6th street.

A Leviathan turned a corner and flew alongside a corporate building. The employees inside backed away from the windows in fear when they all heard rumbling. They all shouted in fear and ran away as the Hulk charged through the floor of the building, jumped through the window and grabbed the Leviathan's mouth. Hulk yanked and pulled the Leviathan away from the building but one of its wings crashed through the glass windows of the building. Aegis flew by and morphed his orbs into the Demon Wind Shuriken and threw it at the Leviathan, slicing it clean in two. He flew down to the ground when the Hulk looked at him and growled.

"Hulk remembers Puny Man. Puny Man helps Banner. Puny Man try to help Hulk. Puny Man strong." Hulk said as Aegis nodded in response. He looked at the split body of the Leviathan and got an idea. He held his hand out and removed the armor and began to merge them together to form a giant battle axe and put it in Hulk's hand.

"Enjoy yourself, Hulk. I'm well into the triple digits. You've got some catching up to do." Aegis said which made Hulk smirked.

"Hulk likes Puny Man." Hulk jumped into the air and sliced a glider in two. Aegis turned and saw another horde of Chitauri gliders closing in on him. Aegis flew forward and held the shuriken in front of him and began spinning it very fast. He flew at the gliders as the spinning shuriken acted like a boat or airplane propeller and chewed up any Chitauri that got in his way. He stopped in the air and threw the shuriken, watching it slice through glider after glider with ease before returning to his hand.

Aegis flew down Time Square and saw the Chitauri blasting the New Year's Eve ball. "You don't screw with the New Year's ball." Aegis growled and threw his shuriken and destroyed the gliders when he saw a massive digital billboard come loose. It would have fell and crush some civilians so he rushed over and stopped it. He lifted the billboard into the air used it like a giant bat to destroy more gliders before putting it back onto the ground.

Romanoff sliced off a Chitauri head with the combi stick and threw another explosive pellet at a group of Chitauri and blew them up. She rolled forward and stabbed a Chitauri in the leg before zapping in the back of the neck with her bracelets. She turned and readied the spear but saw it was Cap and lowered it. She leaned against a car to catch her breath. "Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." He told her.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns." She said, making a valid point. He saw more Chitauri arrive down the street, blocking her entrance to the tower.

"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride." He said as Romanoff saw some gliders heading their way.

"I got a ride." She pressed a button on the stick and retracted the spear before putting in her belt and walked to the other side of the street. Cap looked up and saw what her idea was. "I could use a boost, though."

"Are you sure about this?" He asked.

"Yeah. It's gonna be fun." She ran forward, jumped off the car and landed on the shield. Cap pushed her into the air and she grabbed onto a speeding glider. He smirked when he ducked under an energy blast and saw the Chitauri closing in.

"Cap, tuck and roll!" Aegis shouted as Cap jumped into the air. Aegis flew above and grabbed his hand, spun around and threw Cap towards the Chitauri. Cap tucked and rolled with his shield out front and bashed into the aliens like a bowling ball. He rolled from the impact and spin kicked a Chitauri across the street and bashed another in the head. Aegis flipped forward and landed in a crouch, unleashing a psychic shockwave that knocked the Chitauri back. Aegis separated the massive shuriken into two giant blades and began slicing and dicing while Cap bashed with his shield. Aegis decapitated another Chitauri and then did a butterfly spin as Cap threw his shield under him which ricocheted off the ground and bashed into two Chitauri. Aegis tossed one of the swords to Cap who engaged more of the Chitauri as the shield bounced back to Aegis and grabbed it. He bashed one Chitauri in the head and sliced another in half before throwing the shield into a Chitauri who tried to attack Cap from behind. Cap grabbed his shield and kicked the dead Chitauri away before throwing the sword in the air. Aegis grabbed the sword and morphed into a giant spear and threw it down the street, skewering four Chitauri and pinning them up against a building.

He took out his Predator Shuriken and into the air as Iron Man came barreling down and ran over some Chitauri before stopping and blasting some aliens alongside Cap. He fired a repulsor beam at Cap who reflected it with his shield and hit a group of Chitauri. Aegis caught his shuriken, turned and pointed his sword forward as Iron Man fired his unibeam. The unibeam split in two down the middle when it hit the sword and diverged around Aegis and blasted two Chitauri. Iron Man flew up the side of the building, knocking some Chitauri off as Hawkeye scored headshot after headshot. He ducked under an energy blast and fired an arrow at the pilot of a glider and hit it in the head, causing it to crash into a Leviathan. On the Leviathan, Thor and Hulk where bashing and busting alien after alien. The two heavy hitters were making mincemeat of the Chitauri. Hulk broke the armor of the Leviathan, ripped off a piece and stabbed it into the large snake's head before Thor finished it off with a lightning-infused hammer smash. The Leviathan screeched out and crashed into Grand Central Station. The civilians in the station ran away in fear as Hulk and Thor caught their breath for a second…when Hulk punched Thor into the wall and huffed, probably still pissed about their fight on the helicarrier.

Aegis flew around the Empire State building and blasted more gliders before throwing the Demon Wind Shuriken and destroying more. "Will, the National Guard has arrived and are setting up checkpoints all throughout the city." Edi informed him.

"Find me the nearest one." He said as Edi plotted out a course and the closest was near the 42 street Station-Bryant Park subway stop. He flew above and saw two squadrons of National Guard shooting at the aliens and helping civilians into the subway station. Aegis saw a Leviathan closing in, so he threw the Demon Wind Shuriken and sliced its head off before landing by the soldiers and sending out a psionic shockwave and destroyed more gliders. "Aegis of SHIELD, who's the ranking officer?"

"Captain Menendez." Captain Menendez stepped forward. "What's the situation?"

"All out invasion. Send teams into the buildings and escort the civilians into the basement or the subways. Keep them off the streets. Have your men set up firing lines along the streets and aim high at about 20 meters. These things come in strafing runs so unload hell quickly and aim for the pilots in front or the glowing sections on the gliders, they're the most volatile. If you have heat-seekers, use them. And have any secondary units use the alleyways to move through the city, the Chitauri aren't able to maneuver in there." Aegis told him as the Captain nodded. Aegis flew back into the air and got back into the fight.

Cap was three blocks away, wrestling with a Chitauri before kicking it off and slamming his shield into its head, killing it. "Captain, the bank on 42nd, past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there." Barton told him.

"I'm on it." Cap fixed his shield and made his way to the bank.

Inside the bank, easily a hundred civilians were corned with Chitauri on the second floor, holding them at gunpoint. One of the Chitauri took out a small box and pressed a button and it began beeping. Cap dove through an open window and threw his shield, hitting the Chitauri in the face and causing it to drop the bomb. The other two fired at Cap who dove behind a desk for cover. He kicked the desk and sent it slamming into them, knocking one to the ground and the other against the railing. Cap rushed over, punched the alien in the gut and snapped its neck before tossing it over the railing and onto the group.

"Everyone, clear out!" Cap shouted as a Chitauri grabbed him from behind and yanked his cowl off. Cap slammed it in the side when Aegis flew into the window and threw three of his flechettes into the back of its head, killing it. Cap kicked it off as the last Chitauri got back up and fired at them. The beeping on the bomb increased rapidly, indicating it was about to go off.

"CAP!" Aegis shouted as Cap grabbed his shield and the two ran to the window. The Chitauri grabbed the bomb and was about to throw it at them when it went off with a massive explosion. Aegis grabbed Cap and put up a forcefield around them, that while it protected them from the blast the impact alone sent them out the window. They flew out the window as Cap crashed onto the car and Aegis hit the pavement. Both of the super soldiers groaned in pain from the impact and the physical exhaustion the two were feeling. Even though they had superhuman endurance, the two had been fighting at high intensity for two hours non-stop against aliens. Any normal soldier wouldn't have even lasted 30 minutes doing what they do. The two were super soldiers but fighting terrorists or enemy agents was easy compared to flying aliens. Aegis got up off the ground and held his hand out to Cap who took it and he helped him off the car. "You ok?"

"Yeah, you?" Cap asked and Aegis nodded in response.

"Just getting my second wind." Aegis said as Romanoff came over the radio.

"Will, I could use a little help!" She shouted.

"I'm on it." He flew into the air and made his way to her. His mask zoomed in and he saw she was piloting a Chitauri glider with four other ones chasing her. He flew straight at them and blasted them to pieces with his telekinetic blasts. She maneuvered the glider over to the Stark tower and jumped, rolling from the impact, and landing safely on the roof.

"Thanks." She said as Aegis flew down 6th Avenue and continued blasting, slicing, and smashing gliders. She walked over to the portal device and began contemplating how to deactivate it.

"The scepter." She heard. She turned and saw Dr. Selvig on the ground.

"Doctor." Romanoff saw him and he looked worse for wear.

"Loki's scepter. The energy." He said. "The Tesseract can't fight but you can't protect against yourself."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." She told him as he looked at her with remorse.

"Actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut their power source." He told her as she realized what he was trying to tell her.

"Loki's scepter." She said as he nodded.

"It may be able to close the portal." Selvig turned and looked at Tony's private floor where he saw it embedded in the wall. "And I'm looking right at it."

The fighting continued on and the Avengers were beginning to lose their steam. Thor was on a glider as he bashed the two Chitauri gunners and killed the pilot. The glider swerved in the air a bit and he was heading towards a building when a Leviathan crashed through and knocked the god of thunder away. Iron Man flew alongside the monster and used his wrist laser to try and penetrate the armor, but it wasn't working.

"Sir, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell." Jarvis informed him.

He had to come up with another idea, so he sped up, turned around and flew right at the Leviathan. "Jarvis…you ever hear the tale of Jonah?" He asked.

"I wouldn't consider him a role model." Jarvis replied as the knee-caps on the armor opened up to reveal rockets. Iron Man sped up and flew right into the Leviathan's mouth. He barreled through the flesh as the rockets fired and blew the Leviathan up from the inside, but the resulting explosion knocked him through the air, through a bus bench and smacked him into a taxi. Tony took a second to recover from the impact and managed to get back to his feet only to be blasted twice by a Chitauri and knocked into a light pole.

Four Chitauri closed in on him when Aegis landed and deployed his arm shield and wrist blades. He deflected energy blasts from one Chitauri and closed the distance, kicking it in the face and slicing its leg off. He butterfly flipped through the air stabbed another Chitauri in the chest, using it as a meat shield and charged at the third. He took one of his explosive pellets and stuck it in the alien's throat before kicking its body into last two and knocked them into a car. The explosive went off as he threw one of his flechettes into the first Chitauri's eye, killing it.

"Armor integrity at 25%, power at 17%, left jet boot disabled." Jarvis informed Tony as Will ran over and helped him up.

"Thanks for the save, kid." Iron Man told him.

"Will, Clint is going to need some help." Edi showed him on the map as 20 Chitauri were closing in on him.

"I'm on it!" He flew into the air as Iron Man tried hovering up but with his left jet boot damaged and disabled, it was a lot harder and he couldn't fly around like before. Hawkeye fired an arrow at a Chitauri that tried to sneak up on him and when he pulled out another, he realized he was empty. Another Chitauri climbed up so he smacked it with his bow and kicked it off the roof. He grabbed his arrow from the dead Chitauri when he saw a whole group of gliders heading straight for him. "Clint I'm on your nine! Jump now!"

Hawkeye jumped forward and off the building just as the Chitauri blew the rooftop to pieces. He fell to the ground when Aegis flew by and grabbed him by the arm. He flew them low to the ground when an energy blast hit him in the back and sent him crashing to the ground. He grabbed Barton and covered the two in a forcefield as they hit the ground hard which saved them from serious injuries.

"Thanks for that." Hawkeye said as Aegis nodded when the gliders did a strafing run, so he brought up a barrier. He held the barrier as strong as he could and noticed it was a lot harder then it was three hours ago when the fighting started, and he could feel the mental and physical strain his powers required now. A group of Chitauri on the ground advanced on them and fired at the barrier so Aegis did his best to try and keep it up but it was getting harder.

"Clint, do something!" Aegis struggled to keep the barrier up so Hawkeye grabbed one of the shoulder pellet straps from Will and tossed it high into the air above the Chitauri. He fired his last arrow at it, and it exploded in a huge plume of fire and metal the killed the aliens. "Thanks."

Aegis concentrated and collected all the nearby arrows Clint had used and pulled them into his hand. In the surrounding area, there were about 40 he was able to get which gave Clint his arsenal back. "Here. Cap's a few blocks away. Group up with him!" Aegis flew into the air and began blasting more Chitauri but saw his telekinetic energy blasts weren't as powerful as before. He saw another group of gliders heading straight for him so he raised a forcefield but again, it was a lot harder to keep strong. He quickly threw the Demon Wind Shuriken and destroyed another wave.

"Edi, what's going on with my powers?" He asked as he flew down a street and sliced glider after glider.

"Your powers are getting weaker because you're overtaxing your body and your mind. While you do have enhanced endurance, you have been fighting nonstop for the past three hours and 48 minutes. Any normal human would have passed out from exhaustion or died at this point. And you weren't in 100% condition after your astral projection episode or has the botulism escaped your mind. And while your powers are linked to your brain and it has gotten strong, it is still a muscle and your constant use of it is tiring you out faster." Edi informed him and she was right. While he was a super soldier and he had super endurance, he and Cap still have their limits. Now while Cap wasn't as tired as he was, Will was using his powers constantly. He did gain a boost in power and new abilities from the scepter, but the astral projection episode tired him out and he hadn't trained with his new power level yet, so he was gassing out quicker. "I recommend limiting your powers as much as possible."

"Duly noted. Keep me updated." He said as he flew low to the ground and sliced Chitauri after Chitauri with the giant shuriken.

The Hulk smashed through another group of Chitauri, slamming their heads with his fists and throwing them away like softballs when hit with a few energy blasts. The Hulk looked up to see about 40 Chitauri gliders grouped together and the lead pilot signaled the others to fire but Aegis flew in front of the Hulk and raised up a barrier. The Chitauri fired everything they had at the barrier and Will struggled to keep it up as the continuous bombardment strained him. That along with his exhaustion wasn't helping.

"HULK, DO SOMETHING!" Aegis shouted. The Hulk did a thunderclap and the shockwave destroyed half of the gliders. Will struggled to hold up the barrier and began generating energy in his body and unleashed a psionic shockwave that destroyed the rest.

Will fell to his knees in exhaustion and took a moment to catch his breath. He turned around and saw the Hulk looking at him. "Puny man help Hulk. Hulk like Puny Man." Hulk smiled and jumped away to fight more Chitauri.

At the helicarrier, World Security Councilwoman Hawley contacted two of the SHIELD pilots and informed them of their new orders. "Director Fury is no longer in command. Override order 7-Alpha-1-1."

"7-Alpah-1-1, confirmed. We're go for takeoff." The pilot responded. Hill was on the bridge when she noticed the jet about to leave.

"Sir, we have a bird in motion!" Hill shouted as Fury ran to the flight deck. "Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird. We need to shut it down! Repeat, take off is not authorized."

Fury ran out onto the flight deck with a rocket launcher and saw the jet speeding up on the runway. He aimed and fired the rocket, hitting the engine and causing the jet to crash. He thought he ended it when he saw another jet take off. He pulled out his pistol but was too late as the Jet was in the air and heading to the city. Fury ran inside and contacted Will

"Agent Detmer, come in." Fury called.

"Little busy at the moment, Director. This better be important." He replied as he flipped over a car and decapitated another Chitauri with his forearm blades, then threw his shurikens and sliced through more.

"You have a missile heading straight for the city." He told him.

"How long do I have?" He asked as he fired a telekinetic blast at a group of Chitauri.

"Three minutes, max. The payload will wipe out Midtown." Fury told him.

"Edi get me a location on that jet now!" Aegis ordered as he unleashed one final shockwave that nearly put him on empty.

"Airplane, located. Three miles off of Liberty island." Edi brought up the map to show him so he flew out of the city as fast as he could.

The jet was flying towards Manhattan as the pilot hesitated for a second before following orders and firing the nuke at the city. "Package is sent. Detonation in 2 minutes, 30 seconds, mark." The pilot reported and flew back to the helicarrier.

Cap, Thor and Hawkeye were together by Grand Central Station fighting the Chitauri. Cap bashed one with his shield as Thor hit one with his hammer and Hawkeye took headshot after headshot. One energy blast hit Cap in the stomach and sent him to the ground as more Chitauri grouped up and fired at them. Thor blocked the blasts with his hammer while Hawkeye fired an explosive arrow and killed a bunch of them. Thor hit a car with his hammer and sent it spinning on its side and squished the Chitauri before throwing it down the street and killing a few more. Thor held out his hand and helped the Captain back to his feet.

"Are you ready for another bout?" Thor asked, looking at the wound but Steve stayed strong.

"What, are you getting sleepy?" He asked.

Another group of Chitauri showed up but before they could open fire, a missile blew them all to pieces. They turned and saw Iron Man wobbly hover through the air and land next to them. "I'm running low on tricks here, Cap." Iron Man told him.

"Me too. We have a new plan here?" Hawkeye asked as Steve shrugged.

"I don't know." He replied.

On the roof of Stark Tower, Selvig and Romanoff had recovered the scepter and were going to close the portal. "Right at the crown." Selvig instructed her. She pushed the scepter into the device as it managed to penetrate the shield.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." Romanoff said.

"Do it!" Cap told her.

"Wait, not yet!" Aegis told them.

"Will, these things are still coming." Cap told him.

"I know but we've got a nuke heading to the city and it's going to blow in less than a minute." He said as he saw the nuke heading to the city and he had less than sixty seconds before it detonated. He swerved through the air over the Brooklyn Bridge and flew alongside the missile. "And I've got enough in the tank to send it where I want to."

He flew under the missile and began physically adjusting its course to head for the portal. "Will…you know that's a one way trip." Cap told him as Will took a moment to himself.

"You really need to work on your motivational speeches, Cap." He replied.

"Will…I don't think you'll have enough energy to make it back through the portal." Edi told him. Will took a moment and knew that this could be the end.

"Guess I'll have to take those odds." He said. "Edi…it's been an honor."

"The honor has been mine, Will." She replied with fondness and charted out a course for him to follow into the portal.

Fury and all of SHIELD watched with baited breath as they saw Aegis fly the missile towards the portal in an effort to end the invasion and save the city from a nuclear explosion. He flew down the street and closed in on Stark Tower as he readied himself to dig deep and use whatever last ounce of strength and concentration he had for this.

"RAAAAAHHHHH!" He shouted at the top of his lungs and physically forced the missile straight up into the air. The rest of the team watched as Aegis pushed the missile straight up into the sky and towards the portal and made it through. All the SHIELD personnel on the helicarrier cheered and sighed in relief that Aegis saved the city and Fury watched with pride in his sacrifice…he was like his mother in that way.

Aegis flew through the portal with the missile and arrived in deep space. The thruster on the missile kept it moving but Will immediately began to experience the empty vacuum he was in. His mask did its best to supply him with oxygen but he had maybe half a minute at best. His suit was for combat and not pressurized for the force of deep space and he couldn't raise a barrier around himself…he was too tired. He looked and saw the massive mother ship of the Chitauri when he noticed the missile was off course so he used his last ounce of consciousness and strength to move the missile to the left and send it right where it needed to be. His mask ran out of oxygen and he struggled to breathe when he saw the nuke go off and obliterate the command ship. Back on earth, the team watched as all the Chitauri and Leviathans drop to the ground dead. Will did it.

Will was too far from the portal to make it as his body just drifted in space. He closed his eyes and faded into darkness with a smile on his face…he saved the world. At the last second, he could have sworn he saw a yellow blip in the distance heading straight for him before he passed out. Said yellow blip was moving fast and when it neared him, it gave him a small nudge and sent him moving towards the portal.

"Come on, kid. Come on." Tony begged, hoping to see him fly out of the portal but all they saw was the light of the nuclear explosion and muffled boom. They all sighed in regret…Will didn't make it.

"Close it, Romanoff." Steve regrettably told her. With a heavy heart, she touched the scepter to the crown and the energy connection ceased and shut the portal down. The energy beam ceased and the portal began collapsing just as Will's body drifted into it right before it closed.

"Look!" Barton pointed into the air and they saw Will's body heading straight for the ground. He made it.

"The kid did it." Tony said with pride when he and Thor noticed something.

"He's not slowing down!" Thor began spinning his hammer and Tony closed his mask.

"Jarvis, give me everything we got into the thrusters." His thrusters went off and he began to hover into the air, but Will's body was dangerously close to the ground. His saving grace came in the form of the Hulk who grabbed him mid-fall and dug into the side of a building, slowing their descent. The Hulk then jumped from the building and landed on the street by Stark Tower with Will safely in his arms. He put him down on the ground as Thor, Tony, Steve, and Barton rushed over.

"Is he breathing?" Steve asked as Thor ripped his mask off and they all saw Will's face was paler than normal. Steve checked his breathing but there was none.

"Thor, give him a jumpstart!" Tony said as Thor channeled electricity into his hammer and shocked Will, forcing his body to move like he was hit with shock paddles. "Again!"

Thor did it again but nothing as Tony still wasn't detecting a heartbeat. "Do it again!" Tony shouted as Thor did it one last time but nothing. Thor and Steve sighed in regret as Barton bowed his head in respect.

"Do it again!" Tony shouted as Steve tried to stop him.

"Tony…he's gone." Steve told him as Tony didn't want to believe him.

"Come on, kid. Wake up. Wake up!" Tony shook him but Will wasn't moving. "I know you're tougher then this now wake up! Come on!"

Tony began shocking Will with his repulsors to try and get his heart to start but it did nothing. "COME ON!" Tony shouted as Steve had to hold him back.

"Tony, stop!" Steve shouted as Tony struggled to hold back tears. "He's gone."

None of them wanted to believe that he was gone but there was nothing they could do. The kid who brought them all together and led them in the fight gave his life for their mistakes. Hulk felt sadness instead of anger when his hearing picked up a faint pumping and knew it was coming from Will.

[ROAR!] "AAAAHH!" Will woke up with a shock and Steve, Tony, Thor, and Barton saw he was alive when they thought he was dead. Will coughed his lungs up as the Hulk roared in celebration. Will took some heavy breaths when he saw Tony, Thor, Barton, Steve, and the Hulk looking at him. "What happened?! Am I dead?"

"No, you made it kid." Tony said as he hugged him and he hugged back.

"We won." Steve said. Will nodded and laid back on the ground to rest.

"Nicely done everyone." Will said feeling the exhaustion and pain of the battle finally hit him. "Barton, you think saving the world warrants a few days off?"

"More than a few." Barton said so Will gave him a thumb up.

"Hey, have any of you guys ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." Tony said.

"We're not finished yet." Thor said and Steve nodded in agreement.

"And then shawarma after." Tony said.

Loki had finally dug himself out of the hole in the floor that Will knocked him in to. His whole body ached and his stab wound had healed. Loki crawled out of the hole and made his way to the door when he stopped. He turned around to see the Avengers grouped together there, glaring at him and waiting for him to give them an excuse to kick his ass. Romanoff held his scepter and Barton had an arrow aimed right at his head.

"If it's not too much trouble…I'd very much appreciate a drink." Loki said causing the Hulk to growl in response.

The military began securing the city and soon SHIELD arrived to help clean up the mess and secure all alien contraband. Will encased Loki in a Vibranium prison jumpsuit with a muzzle so he wasn't escaping. Some SHIELD agents took him into custody and secured the scepter and the portal device, but the group didn't know that a portion of the Tesseract energy had been infused in the crown of the portal device. They weren't done with it yet. After Loki was taken away, the team went to the shawarma restaurant and began eating their fill after the long day they've had. They all sat around a table and ate as much as they could eat while the owners of the restaurant were cleaning up the damage from the battle. Dr. Banner finished his shawarma while Will gulped down another soda. Thor was on his sixth shawarma basket and Barton read a magazine while he ate. Steve wiped his mouth and Romanoff took a sip of water while Tony sat back in his chair. It was actually pretty good. No one said anything, they just sat there and ate for what seemed like forever but in actuality was just half an hour.

They heard a rumble outside and saw the War Machine suit land outside the restaurant. The mask opened up as Rhodey looked at them and at the aftermath of the battle. "Rhodey, what took you so long?" Will asked.

Line Break xxxxx

A few days have passed since the invasion of the Chitauri which was now being called the Battle of New York. In the aftermath of the battle, SHIELD worked double-time to clean up the mess left behind in the battle and secure any and all alien artifacts, weapons, or bodies. It would take time, but Stark Industries was also helping in the clean-up and repair. SHIELD was also officially revealed to the public after the battle of New York and took priority of all clean-up and activity in the city following the battle. Tony worked with SHIELD and the government and quickly formed the Department of Damage Control which would supervise all clean-up and make sure all alien technology was recovered and stored away safely.

Hill was in a briefing with the World Security Council following the Battle of New York. The council felt that despite everything that happened, Fury wasn't fit for SHIELD command and were going to use whatever they could to crucify him. Hill sat at a table and she recounted her experience to the council via video chat.

"You want to know what went wrong? How this horror, this catastrophe could have been avoided?" Hill asked.

"A lot of people are dead, Commander Hill. Somebody has to answer for that." Councilman Ricktor told her.

"A lot of people have to answer for that." She replied.

"Nick Fury?" Councilwoman Hawley asked, causing Hill to scoff and shake her head.

"That man." She commented.

"You've filed several reports criticizing Director Fury's actions since you joined SHIELD." Hawley said.

"Because he's reckless. We're at war and he thinks about superheroes." Hill said.

"The Avengers?" Councilman Mallick asked.

"God. Who would bring those people together and not expect what happened?" She said.

"You have to understand that there are aspects of this incident that are difficult for most people to accept. Those creatures." Councilman Hawley said.

"Fury says to me once, in the time of gods and monsters what is the worth of a single man? I don't know what he means and then men are dying all around. Good men. Friends…even some heroes." Hill said.

"So, it's safe to say some mistakes were made in the handling of the incident." Hawley said.

"Mistakes? God. That's all there was, a serious of escalating mistakes. And worst of all, I lost faith in Fury's biggest gamble. Aegis." Hill said. "Here is a man who has risked his life for this planet, and I have been doubting him since day one. I have a lot of making up to do for him, especially since he saved us from the second biggest mistake which was all of you. You thought they were a threat. I thought they were a joke. Nick Fury only ever saw them as the Avengers, no matter what he said. If he hadn't seen that and trusted Aegis…well, midtown Manhattan would be a smoking crater for one thing."

"That issue is not on question at this time." Mallick told her.

"It is absolutely a bad idea The wrong people at the wrong time and it worked. I had my doubts, but Fury had the missing link. Aegis. He brought them together and they saved us and its infuriating. We're trained to believe in a system, not to gamble, not to hope. Nick Fury saw something running under the system. A current, a connection, a truth…about what we can do. What they would become. The Avengers were the mistake that saved the world. That's my official statement." Hill told them as the Council collectively sighed that the briefing didn't go as they wanted to.

"I see." Mallick said.

"Oh, and as for the matter that is not in question, where you morons tried to nuke New York…well, that's on the record. As in we recorded it as well as news crews all over the world. And we collected them, so we have backups to our backups. We do that, we're SHIELD. So, if you're thinking about coming after Nick Fury or pressuring him, myself, or any of our agents about Aegis and who he could possibly be or sending your men after him…think really, really hard." Hill ended that conversation with a smile on her face.

The Avengers gathered together in Central Park with a squad of SHIELD agents to secure the perimeter. They met one last time as Dr. Banner and Dr. Selvig put the Tesseract into a specialized device that would activate it's portal abilities and send Thor back to Asgard. Thor thanked all his new friends and allies and took Loki back to Asgard. The team said their goodbyes for now, but they would keep in touch incase something like this happened again.

Fury was meeting with the council on the helicarrier and showed them the news coverage of the Avengers which pretty much sang praise about them. "Where are the Avengers now?" Councilman Adid asked.

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they've earned a leave of absence." Fury replied.

"And the Tesseract?" Hawley asked.

"The Tesseract is where it belongs. Out of our reach." Fury told them.

"That wasn't your call to make." Mallick informed him.

"I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the god that did." Fury replied.

"So, you let him take it and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crimes." Mallick said.

"Oh, I think he will be." Fury joked.

"I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous." Hawley told him

"They surely are, and the whole world knows it. Every world knows it." Fury accentuated that last sentence.

"Was that the point of all this, Director? A statement?" Mallick asked as Fury thought of Captain Rogers and Will Detmer.

"A promise." He replied and ended the conversation. He walked out of the briefing room and onto the bridge where he saw Hill busy at work. "How did your conversation go with them?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I sold you up the river, sir. I'll probably have your job soon." She said as Fury looked at the podium where he stood.

"You should probably ask for a chair." He joked which actually made her chuckle as the two walked over to the sky view.

"Sir, how does it work now? With the Avengers? They've gone their separate ways. Some of them pretty extremely far." Hill said. "If we get into a situation like this again, what happens then?"

"They'll come back." He said as he looked out the window.

"Are you really sure about that?" She asked.

"I am." He replied.

"Why?" Hill was curious as Fury looked back at her.

"Because we'll need them to." Fury believed in the Avengers and now she did as well.

Back in New York, Tony Stark had Bruce and Will in Stark Tower to rest up as he thought about the redesigns and construction for the tower. Pepper showed Dr. Banner to his room so Tony got himself a drink when he noticed Will looking out into the city.

"Everything ok, kid?" Tony asked as he walked up to him.

"I don't know why, but I'm going to miss how things were." He said which made Tony confused. "Things have changed now and there's no going back. The world's never going to be the same."

"You got that right, kid." Tony said as he took a sip of his drink. "Aliens, gods, monster, other dimensions, I'm just a man in a suit."

"A fancy billion-dollar suit but a suit nonetheless." Will joked which made Tony chuckle. "They're not going to be the only threat we'll face. The intermediator between Loki and the Chitauri…he won't take this sitting down."

"Then we better be ready for when he shows up again. Come on." Tony brought Will over to his workstation where he laid out a holographic design pad. He activated it to show the new designs he had for the Tower which included increased security measures, prototypes for something called the Iron Legion, a quinjet hangar and quarters for all the Avengers. "Next time the aliens come knocking, we'll be ready."

"Leave it to you to prepare for everything." Will said.

"Now all it needs is a name." Tony said as Will got an idea. He took a stencil and wrote down Avengers Tower on the pad.

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading today. Let's get to work." Will said as Tony nodded.

Deep Space

Back in the barren space quadrant where the Chitauri used to be was nothing but emptiness as they had been wiped out. The Other knelt before his master and relayed the news of the Chitauri defeat on earth and the decimation of the fighting force. "Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled." The Other told his master. Said Master, stood up from his chair and the Other bowed his head in respect. "To challenge them…is to court death."

Thanos just turned around at his subject with a smirk. This was far from over.

End of Chapter 5

Finally, the end of Phase 1 of the MCU. It took forever but I'm glad I got it done with so I can now write more interesting crossovers and get to the Agents of SHIELD part of the story. The Avengers are officially together, and the rest of Phase 2 is set for the story. The Battle of New York is over, and the world now knows of the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I hope you guys like the chapter, it was basically the movie with some of the deleted scenes added in. Some things were changed up because Will is involved like him taking the nuke into the portal and helping Dr. Banner with the Hulk. This won't be the last time the portal device is used as it will come back in a later chapter. I know many of you want Will to go to the Arrowverse and he will in a later chapter. He'll be powered up when he heads there but it won't be for a while.

Will's interaction with the scepter and the Mind Stone increased his power and gave him new abilities like Astral Projection. In the comics, the Mind Stone is able to increase the power of telepaths, telekinetics, and psychics. So, when he interfaced with it, it gave him a power boost and unlocked new abilities. Now while he got stronger, he'll need to learn how to use them more effectively. Before people begin pointing out that Will should have been able to do more during the Battle of New York, remember that Will wasn't at 100% when the battle began. Astral Projection is useful but extended use is bad for him, which shows in the vomiting episode he had when he got back in his body. And even though his mind is incredibly powerful and he's immensely powerful, his body still has its limits. In the Avengers movie, Cap was tired from the battle as well and Will's the same so he would be just as exhausted, probably more given how often he used his powers. His brain is powerful and deadly but it's a muscle and can be strained so that's why he got so tired in the fight. As he trains more and more, he won't exhaust himself as quickly. Hope the power levels help give you guys a mental indicator of how powerful he's gotten. He'll get stronger in Phase 2 and when Phase 3 hits, he'll get even stronger.

For those that haven't seen Captain Marvel, sorry for spoiling scenes from the movie. Will know knows more about his birthmother and next chapter, he'll confront Fury about what he knows and learn more and meet a Flerken. Captain Marvel was great and can't wait to see her in Endgame and where things go from here. Long live Goose.

Next chapter, Will confronts Fury about what he knows about Carol Danvers and learns the full story of what happened in the 90s. He also meets the Flerken that clawed out Fury's eye. Besides that, he'll enjoy his vacation and a surprise visit from someone makes it better but Will being Will, his luck will turn, and he'll be facing a serial killer. Not fun. Till next time.

William Detmer

· Moniker= Aegis (means something under protection from a benevolent source/Shield of Zeus and Athena)

· SHIELD Status: Level 5 Agent/ Avenger / Special Operations, Tactics and Defense Specialist (SOTD)

· Appearance: Stephen Amell from Arrow, Season 1 build.

o Combat gear: Earth X's Dark Arrow Vibranium jacket and pants with retractable full-face mask colored Black and Blue. Eye covers in mask are colored blue as well. Shoulder strap pellet holders. Combat gloves and forearm guards with weapons and equipment.

o Weapons:

§ Signature Guns:

· Modified Heckler & Koch P30L handgun with custom grip and compensator.

· Modified Knight's Armament SR-25 Sniper rifle with modified scope, bipod, and suppressor.

· Modified M249 Mk46 Light Machine gun with a modified barrel, magazine insertion well. Equipped with adjustable buttstock, 100-round magazine drum, deployable bipod, red dot sight, flashlight, and laser sight attachment.

· Modified TDI/KRISS Vector-.45 ACP with modified barrel, stock, grip, extended magazine, red-dot sight, flashlight, laser sight, and silencer attachment.

§ Others:

· Right forearm guard wrist mounted retractable Vibranium/alloy blades.

· Left forearm guard wrist mounted small retractable Vibranium Shield & touchpad computer.

· 10 dark blue flechettes/throwing arrows wrapped around his ankles.

· 2 Vibranium orbs that Will is able to manipulate.

· Natural Language Modified Artificial Intelligence program EDI.

· Predator Combi stick/spear

· 2 Predator Shuriken

· 4 Laser net devices

· Predator knife

o Casual Outfit: dark blue or black sneakers, jeans, blue or black t-shirt and either a zip-up hoodie, jacket, or button up over.

· Born: September 8th, 1988-Currently 23

· Notable talents: Genius level intellect potential, self-defense military training from Harold Detmer, knowledge, and training in 15 types of martial arts, gun knowledge and expert marksman trained by Clint Barton, espionage and spy skills trained by Natasha Romanoff, SHIELD tactics and medical training from Coulson and SHIELD trainers, well-crafted knowledge and understanding of psychology, knowledge, and experience with engineering both mechanical and electrical.

· Personality: Kind, caring, composed, attentive, intelligent, and driven. Can be a bit of a smartass.

o When insulted, angered, or in a serious situation, focused and relentless. Considered dangerous and unforgiving in these types of situations.

o Uses powers sparingly in the field unless absolutely needs to.

· Pairing: Will x Skye/Daisy Johnson x Crystal

Powers:

· Rakyat Tatau: Mystical tattoo that enhances speed, strength, stamina, intelligence, instincts, healing speed ad metabolic function to absolute human peak potential. (Captain America Level Super Soldier)

· Telekinesis, the ability to impact objects through the direct influence of mental power or other non-physical means

· Power Level=Advanced: level 4 out of 5

o Binding-to keep an object/being from moving

o Levitation-to lift an object

o Orbital Field-to makes objects and energy orbit around user

o Telekinetic Shield-to create a shield of telekinetic energy around user or others/strength of shield depends on mental strength and focus of user

o Psionic Speed-to augment user's physical speed

o Psionic Strength-to augment user's physical strength

o Telekinetic Bullet Projection-projecting telekinetic energy as bullets

o Telekinetic Choking-to strangle someone with telekinesis

o Telekinetic Grip-To grasp an object firmly in place

o Telekinetic Maneuver-to alter an object's directional course

o Telekinetic Pull & Push-to pull or push objects away from user

o Molecular Manipulation-to manipulate matter at molecular level. Can accelerate, slow down and adjust spacing of molecules. (limited in use. ie. manipulating Vibranium orbs and reshaping them)

o Telekinetic Aura/Sense-To sense one's surroundings with telekinesis

o Telekinetic Compression-to crush or compact an object

o Telekinetic Blast-to emit telekinetic energy as a blast of blue energy

o Telekinetic Destruction-to make an object explode into dust

o Telekinetic Flight-using telekinesis to fly

o Psionic Explosion-to create/discharge psychic energy across a wide range

· Telepathy, mentally receive or transmit information

· Power Level=Advanced: level 4 out of 5

o Mind Reading-ability to read the thoughts of others

o Memory Reading-the ability to read the target's memories

o Psychic Communication-the ability to secretly converse with others

o Telepathic Speaking-to speak aloud using the mindo Telepathic Projection-to project images or memories into the physical plane

o Download-the ability to process/download information of another person (If used in a violent or angry mood, can harm the victim)

o Knowledge Replication-the ability to replicate learned knowledge and skills

o Knowledge Projection-the ability to project knowledge to another

o Rapid brain activity-the ability to process and understand information at incredible rates

o Mental Inducement-The ability to put the targets mind into the wanted state

o Mental Hallucination-the ability to cause mental hallucinations

o Mind Link-the ability to develop a permanent mental bond with any person

o Mind Walking/Melding-to enter another's consciousness

o Precognition awareness-six sense awareness of imminent danger

o Telepathic Prediction-the ability to know a person's moves by reading their brain waves

o Astral Projection-to separate one's mind from their body and explore physical plane (Cannot use telekinesis in this state. If separated from body too long, very dangerous.)

o Telepathic Surgery-the ability to perform neuropsychic surgery, healing and/or damaging the mind

o Memory/Mental Manipulation-the ability to manipulate a target's memories and mind

o Clairvoyance-the ability to gain direct visual information through non-physical means (Triggered only by serious events)

o Foresight-the ability to foresee possible future events and observe what may happen (Needs certain triggers to activate)

Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of SHIELD or any Marvel Properties, they belong to their respective owners, I'm just a fan.