Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Seven

When we get back to the helicarrier, multiple SHIELD agents swarm the quinjet to escort Loki down to the detention level. The newcomer, Thor, joins us as Agent Hill, Steve, Natasha, Banner, and I gather around the briefing table on the bridge, watching the built-in monitors as Fury interrogates Loki in his glass cell.

"In case it's unclear," Fury announces, "if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass..."

Fury wanders over to the nearby control panel and flips a switch, opening the hatch beneath Loki's cell. The wind howls as it whips past the opening in the floor, and the god steps forward to peer at the straight drop to the ground.

"Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap," Fury continues, flicking the switch again to close the hatch door. "You get how that works?"

Loki smirks. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury states.

Oh, I've heard," Loki confirms as he turns to look into the camera, knowing that we're watching him. "The mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. And the girl who holds the power of the Tesseract within her veins, and yet she's too trapped in her own mind to wield it... How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

My shoulders stiffen as five pairs of eyes shift to me, but my expression remains unreadable as I stare at the screen, where Loki is smiling, taunting me.

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

"Ooh," Loki chuckles. "It burns you to 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."

Fury smirks before turning to walk away. "Well, you let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something."

Loki looks up at the camera one last time before the screen goes black, and the six of us sit around the table in stunned silence. I wait for someone to bring up Loki's comment about my abilities, but thankfully, no one does.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner comments, breaking the silence at last.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve states. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor explains. "They're not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.

"An army?" Steve questions in disbelief. "From outer space?"

"We're certainly not in Kansas anymore, Toto," I mumble, earning a smirk from Steve as he tries to hide his amusement.

"So, he's building another portal," Banner states. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor questions.

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner explains.

"He's a friend," Thor claims.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha informs him, "along with one of ours."

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve announces. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Banner argues. "That's guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor warns. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he's my brother."

"He's killed eighty people in two days," Natasha states.

"He's adopted," Thor amends.

"I think it's about the mechanics," Banner says, trying to steer the conversation away from Loki. "Iridium... What do they need the iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Stark answers as he walks in with Coulson at his side. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Reaching Fury's control panel, Stark addresses the crew down below, "Uh, raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Steve glances in the direction of Stark's point, trying to figure out what Galaga is. Meanwhile, Stark stares at Fury's monitors, covering his left eye with his hand. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Hill states, eying Stark with her arms crossed and a no-nonsense look on her face.

"Sounds exhausting," Stark replies, playing with the monitors as he continues his explanation. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of a high energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

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

"Last night," Stark informs her. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve prompts.

"He's got to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner answers, officially losing me with all the science talk.

"Unless," Stark cuts in, "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner adds.

"Finally," Stark states, walking over to Banner to shake his hand, "someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" I ask, looking around the room at the others. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who's lost in the conversation.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Stark says, shaking his hand. Their eyes shimmer with mutual respect. "You're 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."

Banner's smile fades as he awkwardly looks down. "Thanks."

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," Fury reminds him as he enters the room. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his," Steve suggests. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

I glance down at my hands. The scepter works an awful lot like another weapon too.

"I don't know about that," Fury says, "but it is powered by the Cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asks. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve exclaims before glancing around the room with a proud look on his face. I smirk at him. "I understood that reference."

Tony rolls his eyes before turning to Banner. "Shall we play, doctor?"

"This way, sir," Banner agrees, and the two of them exit the room.