Doll and James

My dickhead of a boss, the one with the magical dice or whatever

"Clint. I've been looking for you," Lana told, carefully sitting down next to him on the small construction balcony.

"I've been up here all day," he told, still lying with his head on his arms and his arms on the railing.

"Makes sense. I mean, you're here to keep an eye on everything, why not hide away up here?" She joked, looking down on the people working beneath them.

"I see better from above. Anyway, did you figure anything out?" He asked, looking at the brunette beside him.

"Not really. Personally I'd reconsider the management style, have a few more supervisors and more systematic reports, but I don't really think anyone here did something to the terabyte," she told.

"Tesseract. Fury's here," Clint noticed, nodding to the bald man entering the big room; "wanna come talk to him?"

"Not even a little. You're on your own here," Lana laughed, making Clint send her a slightly annoyed look before going down to Fury.

They started talking, and Lana took the position of watching just as Clint had not long before, right until something weird started happening. The blue cube started acting up, bending and flowing and sending waves of something Lana didn't recognise throughout the room, before sending a pillar of energy through the room, a portal appearing at the end of it. She quickly got to her feet and went to crawl down as the agents got ready to attack, or perhaps protect.

And then the portal practically blew out, leaving behind only a man.

Black, slick hair pulled back, dark circles under his eyes and a wicked smile.

His smile disappeared as he noticed the hostile energy, seeming somewhat annoyed by it.

Lana knew she should stay back, knew she had no place in the fight that was probably about to happen, but a part of her couldn't let it happen without at least finding out what was going on. Maybe she could help, maybe she could distract the man and give the agents a chance to get the situation under control - even if it went wrong, Clint was there, and she knew he'd protect her. How dangerous could that man be?

"Put down the spear!" Fury ordered loudly, and Lana started climbing down quietly and slowly, careful as to not attract any attention.

And then the man attacked, apparently triggered by Fury's words, his attempt to command him. Lana, who had reached the floor, quickly hid herself behind a desk at the same time as Clint pushed Fury out of the way of the beam from the spear.

A fight went on, and strategically Lana would find her way closer and closer to the action without ever being seen by anyone but Clint.

On the floor she noticed something, something she knew to be the strange mans only because it did not belong where they all currently were.

It seemed to be a sort of ring, however too big to fit on a finger, no matter how large the hands. She glanced around to make sure no one saw, and when sure only Clint was occasionally glancing at her, she quickly hid it in her shoes.

The man got the upper hand against Clint and looked him over.

"You have heart," he stated before aiming the spear at Clint, a blue light emitting around him before reaching his eyes, lighting them blue.

Fury used his chance to put the cube in a metal briefcase and head toward the exit of the room, leaving them all behind. Knowing Clint needed a distraction to get away, Lana quickly took off the shoe not used to hide things she stole from homicidal aliens and threw it after him.

The shoe caught the man's attention and led it to Fury, exactly as Lana had planned. Fury might be willing to leave everybody behind to save his own skin as well as the stupid cube, but Clint wouldn't do that. She needed Clint to be on top of the situation, and it wasn't exactly hard to figure out what Fury's plan was; he was going to blow the place up, with all of them in it.

"Please don't," the man mentioned, looking at the briefcase in Fury's hands; "I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury pointed out, Lana rolling her eyes.

"Of course it does, I've come too far for anything else," the man spat, lifting his head to face Fury; "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose!"

Selvig looked up, immediately braver knowing the man, Loki, was related to someone as good of heart as Thor.

"Loki?" He asked quickly; "Brother of Thor?"

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury offered, finally knowing what exactly this man was.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki stated calmly.

"Are you planning to step on us?" Fury challenged, obviously stalling.

Yup, Lana thought, we are all gonna be blown up.

"I come with glad tidings... of a world made free," Loki added carefully.

Lana panicked and gestured for Clint to do something - now was his chance.

"Sir, the girl hiding there stole something from you," Clint told Loki, his voice rid of all emotion. Lanas eyes widened as Loki looked at her, only now noticing the girl.

"A mortal? And you dare steal from me?" He asked angrily, and Lana stood up in a sudden burst of courage.

"I didn't steal anything," she told, Fury taking his chance to try to sneak out again.

"And you dare lie?" Loki hissed, stepping closer to her.

"Sir, if I may, my dickhead of a boss, the one with the magical dice or whatever, he's leaving," she told the god, Loki immediately turning to Fury who pretended to not have been leaving.

"Free from what?" Fury asked, distracting Loki from the fact he'd been trying to escape again. Selvig, who's wisely been standing back glanced at Lana, who immediately realised what he was doing and tried to shake her head discreetly. Selvig smiled scared, but began sneaking up on Loki.

"Freedom! Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-" Loki's sentence broke when Selvig reached him, and he placed his spear against his heart, the blue glow emitting around him as well. "You will know peace," he finished.

"When you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing," Fury told. At least he was willing to get blown up himself for the cause as well, Lana thought to herself, swallowing the lump in her throat. She was going to die.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Clint told, and Lana looked at him concerned. No way, no way he'd join that guy like that. What had that stupid staff done to him?

"This place is about to blow up and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us," Clint informed. Of course, he had figured out Fury's plan as well.

"Like the pharaohs of old," Fury told confidently.

"It's right," Selvig confirmed; "the portal is collapsing in on itself. We got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well then," Loki sighed, looking at Clint who without hesitation shot a bullet at Fury.

"NO!" Lana screamed, trying to run forward before being grabbed and held back by Clint.

"Bring the girl," Loki sighed before leading the way, Selvig following behind with the briefcase in hand and behind both of them, Clint pulling Lana with them. Perhaps she wouldn't be dying anyway... Even though that might've been to prefer.