As we were in the briefing room, we were watching Fury talk to Loki, he looks to the camera, "oh I've heard."
"The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki says looking over at him.
"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 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate, you might not be glad that you did," Fury tells him.
"Ooh, 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," Loki tells him staring at him.
Fury walks down the steps smiling at him, "well, you let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something."
Loki is then seen looking at the camera smirking, we watch until it goes black. I sit next to Steve while Natasha is on the other side of the table, I look up to see that Thor is standing there in silence while he listens being torn apart that his brother had done this.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asks breaking the silence.
"Loki's gonna drag this out, so, Thor what's his play?" Steve asks.
Thor then turns around, "he has an army called the Chitauri, they're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people, they will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
Steve didn't look that amused as he looked at me and then the rest of the group, "an army? From outer space?"
"So he's building another portal, that's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce says.
Thor looks to him, "Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," I speak up.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him, he's not leading an army from here," Steve says looking around.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki, that guys brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him," Bruce tells us all.
"Have care how you speak, Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother," Thor says.
Natasha looks unsettled, "he killed eighty people in two days."
"He's adopted," Thor commented not sounding pleased.
I scoffed lightly, Bruce walked up a bit, "I think it's about the mechanics, iridium, what did they need the iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony interrupts coming in the briefing room with Coulson, "I'll fly you there, keep the love alive. Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at Shield."
Tony walks up and walks on by Thor hitting his arm lightly, "no hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants."
Tony turns to the crew who don't look amused to see him, "uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."
I shook my head at how he said that to everyone, he then covers his one eye and the other to see the screens, "how does Fury do this?"
Agent Maria Hill looked at Tony in disbelief, "he turns."
"Well, that sounds exhausting. 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. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube," Tony says doing that snap thing that he does.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked him.
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asks stepping down from where he was.
Steve looks at Tony and to everyone else, "does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce explains.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony says pitching in.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce says.
Tony looked amazed, "finally, someone who speaks English."
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asks around.
I looked at him smirking, he looks at me in shock and I couldn't help but chuckle. Tony and Bruce then shake hands, seems like both doctor nerds have become best friends.
"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 tells him.
Bruce looks down, "thanks."
Fury then walks in, "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube, I was hoping you might join him."
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon," Steve says to all.
"I don't know about that, 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," Fury says making a reference that only Steve and I knew.
Thor looked confused, "monkeys? I do not understand."
"I do! I understood that reference," Steve says sounding proud making me smile.
I looked over at Tony who was seen rolling his eyes, I shook my head rolling mine as well, he looks over to Bruce, "shall we play, doctor?"
"Let's play some."
As they walk off, I stand up as I felt myself rushing to the bathroom, I immediately throw up knowing I can't contain myself. This never happens before, but as I had taken a pregnancy test a month back I had morning sickness here and there but not so often as I do now.
As I was finished I opened the door to see Natasha and Fury, I took in a breath, we walked to a little more quieter room.
Fury looks to me, "Romanoff filled me in about you telling her that you're expecting, do we wanna know who's the father?"
"It's Steve," I blurted out.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
I nodded, "positive, we had a little—fondue before I did it with Stark."
"You did it with St—oh Anderson," Fury says in shock with his hands on his hips, "Rogers ain't gonna like this one bit."
I sighed nodding, "I know, I know but can we please not tell anyone about this? Especially Steve? I don't want him worrying."
They nodded, "alright, but you're gonna have to tell him eventually."
I nodded, "yes sir."
As he walks off Natasha comes to me, "so what's the plan? Are you gonna keep it or not?"
"I don't know, we've been talking about kids bur never like this you know?" I said to her in fear.
She nods, "I know, but just remember I got your back."
"Thanks Nat."
I walk on over to the lab where Tony and Bruce were, I walk inside, "seems like both of your guys' bromance has paid off very well."
Tony looks up as Bruce did the same, he walks over by me, "can I help you?"
"I need to talk to you," I said to him.
"Well, I'm busy," he says walking over to the other side.
"Oh really? Busy? Because when I walked in here it was nothing like two little boys in class getting caught talking while the teacher has to come in and separate you two," I tell him as my arms were crossed.
He sighed looking up at me, "Miranda, I'm working to try and save the world from big bad aliens to come to earth from outer space. What is it that Cruella Deville wants?"
"Really? We're gonna play that game?" I asked feeling less more remorseful for Tony, "I thought we promised each other that no matter what we'll always stay friends, now it seems like someone's regretting their promise."
He looks down tapping on the table, "well I guess things have changed haven't they?"
I walked up to him, "you're unbelievable Stark, just when I thought I was feeling sorry for you, now I'm not. You're just a cold hearted bastard that's so rich with his money, sleeps with whoever and even slept with one of his new assistants because he had puppy love for her, but now he seems like he doesn't give a shit about her anymore. Especially as a friend, so why promise someone when you can't keep it down your goddamn throat?"
He looks at me feeling slightly embarrassed that this was happening in front of Bruce, I scoffed lightly then he looks at me again from looking away, "you had the option to leave that night, but you stayed. Because you said you felt something within that moment, you up and left because you were resigned from the job. I lived my life by telling Pepper my feelings for her, now you came back throwing shade to me like I'm the bad guy! I think it's best if a slut assistant doesn't distract me from my work when she has another boy toy to play with now."
I slapped him, then I looked at him feeling the tears, "screw you!"
I walked out feeling my emotions take way, when I walked out of there I could feel his eyes on me from the windows of the lab including Bruce. I had bumped into someone but I didn't care who it was, I just kept on walking.
I got to one part of the ship where I needed some air, when I did I heard footsteps, I looked back and it was Thor. I sighed shaking my head with a soft chuckle.
"Come to give me company while I cry on your shoulder?" I asked him sarcastically.
He walks up next to me and stares at me, "what's wrong?"
"Tony," I said chuckling out of spite and wiping my eyes, "he just threw away our friendship like it was nothing to him, I was his new assistant and it was an undercover job I had to do under Fury's orders for my first job assignment. It was to keep an eye on Tony and make sure he doesn't die, he was almost close to dying but he saved himself by getting a new reactor recon in his reactor that's in his chest. We became close friends, one thing lead to another and he kissed me on his birthday. A couple nights later, he slept with me."
He looked at me as if catching readings off me, I chuckled lightly, "I'm sorry I shouldn't be telling you this, just don't mention this to anyone or even to Steve okay?"
"No it's alright, you're hurting because of what Stark did to you. I give you my word I won't tell," he tells me calmly, "but why not Steve?"
I sighed and looked down, "he doesn't know about it, he knows about the kiss but not the sleeping together part. But Steve and I are together, and I'm pregnant with his child."
"With Steve's?" He asked.
I nodded, "yeah, he can't know about this because it'll only distract him and lose focus. I can't let him do that, especially now since we have Loki."
"I understand, I give you my word," he tells me.
I smiled hugging him, "thank you Thor."
"You're very welcome."
As I broke the hug I looked up at him, he looked down on me and we shared a moment. I cleared my throat, "I should uh, I should get back inside, thank you again Thor."
"Of course Miranda."
I smiled and went on with my evening as it turned into daylight within a few hours, I was indeed losing sleep for this but it was for the best on what I needed to do.
"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well," Natasha says on the ear piece, I turned around to see Thor already aware of what might happen.
I walked towards the lab with Thor following slowly behind and I met up with Steve carrying an assault rifle, he puts it on the table, "phase two is shield uses the cube to make weapons, sorry the computer was moving a little slow."
Fury turns to Steve, "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're—"
"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony interrupts moving the computer screen over to Fury to see which shows plans of 'The Weapons', "what were you lying?"
"I was wrong, director, the world hasn't changed a bit," Steve says.
Soon enough Natasha and Thor walk in, her eyes were fixed on Bruce while he looks at her pissed, "did you know about this?"
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha says to him.
"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," Bruce comments back.
I stand next to Steve as I'm very well unaware at what was happening, "Loki's manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what exactly?" He asked her.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she tells him.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," Bruce explained wanting to know information.
Fury then points to Thor, "because of him."
"Me?" Thor says stunned.
"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 explained.
Thor steps up in his place, "my people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled," Fury responds to him.
"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve asked to Fury.
I got this unsettling feeling in my stomach that wasn't making me feel okay, Thor spoke up again, "your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal, to all the realms that the earth, is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?" Steve and I asked in unison.
"You forced our hand, we had to come up with something," Fury says.
"Nuclear deterrent, 'cause that always calms everything right down," Tony then spoke up.
Fury turns to him, "remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—" Steve says.
"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony asked.
Steve turned to him, "I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor comments.
Fury turns to now Thor, "excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor asked.
Natasha looked to him, "are you all really that naive? Shield monitors potential threats."
"Captain America is on the threat potential watch list?" Bruce asked.
Tony turned to Steve, "you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"
"Seriously Tony?" I asked turning to him.
"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack—"
"Threatening! I feel threatened!" Tony says.
"Oh shut up Tony!" I said to him.
We all eventually start arguing.
"You speak of control, yet you cause chaos," Thor says.
"It's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb," Bruce comments.
Fury turns to him, "you need to step away."
Tony then puts his arm around Steve, "why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"
Steve pushes his arm off him, "you know damn well why! Back off!"
Fury and everyone turns to them two now, Tony comes face to face with him, "oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor, take that off, what are you?" Steve tells him looking at him.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," he says causing Nat to nod sideways.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you," Steve arguably tells him.
"I think I would just cut the wire."
Steve smiled at him, "always a way out—you know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!" Tony remarked back going up close to his face.
Steve then puffs up his chest, "put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."
Thor then laughs at them, "you people are so petty, and tiny."
Tony rubs his head moving away from Steve, I walked back next to Steve putting my hand on him to calm down his nerves, he turns to me, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," I whispered back.
"Yeah this is a team—"
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his—"
"Where? You rented my room," Bruce says.
"The cell was just in case—"
"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried! I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!" Bruce says getting slowly angry and stares at Natasha, "you wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"
He was seen holding the scepter as Natasha and Fury go straight to their guns and so did I, "Dr. Banner, put down the scepter."
Bruce looked down to see himself holding the scepter and is shocked, the computer monitors beep, Tony looks, "got it."
Bruce put down the scepter and walks over to the computer, "sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all."
"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
"I can get there faster," Tony says.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor responds.
Tony was going to leave but Steve stopped him, "you're not going alone."
Tony shoved his hand off, "you gonna stop me?"
"Put on the suit, let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
I walked up, "guys stop this."
"You gonna tell him Miranda? Or should I?" Tony asked.
Steve was confused, "tell me what?"
"Tony, not here," I tell him.
"Guess I'm the one who has to tell him," Tony says.
"Tell me what?" Steve asked raising his voice a bit.
I turned to see Bruce who's looking at the monitor noticing something about the Tesseract, "oh my god!"
Suddenly a bomb had went off while all of us were in the lab, Steve goes on top of me covering me, I groaned in pain as I had glass shards chip my face a bit.
Steve, Tony and I get up, Steve looks to Tony as he helps me up, "put on the suit."
"Yep!"
He helps up Tony as well, he looks over at me examining me, "are you okay?"
"I'm fine, go with Tony," I groaned.
He stops and kissed me before running off, I groaned as I got more concerned about my stomach to see if nothing went wrong during that explosion.
I shake it off grabbing my gun to join Fury in the main bridge where everyone is working on their way to keep the engine running, but Tony and Steve are currently working on that together for engine three.
Fury had told something to Hill but then a sliding grenade is seen, "grenade!"
She drops down the steps to take cover, I cover my ears over the loud sound of the grenade, I load up my gun and start firing at the entrance where Fury and Hill are currently shooting at.
After a few shots and the men are dead, Fury looks over to see me, "are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"You don't look—"
"I said I'm fine."
More soldiers are seen coming in, we continue to fire at them, but I had to duck down knowing that after that explosion I didn't feel right. Fury then comes down to me, he looks at me worried.
"You don't look alright."
"Fury I'm—"
In an instant I had passed out unconsciously, I was carried into the medical wing to get tested on and to see if nothing was wrong with me.
A few minutes later I wake up gasping, the nurse rushed over, "ma'am? Are you alright?"
"Where's Steve? I need to get to him," I said sitting up then feeling my head hurt a little bit.
"Who?" She asked.
"Captain Steve Rogers, where is he?" I asked her.
"He's still with Iron Man on the engine three level," she says.
I sighed nodding, "okay, thank you for treating me, I need to get back out there."
"Ma'am, one thing you should know. The fetus in your womb, is still alive," she says to me.
I turned to her, "what did you say?"
"The fetus in your womb? Your unborn child? Is still alive," she says to me.
I smiled nodding to her, "thank you."
When I walked out I heard feedback on the ear piece, "agent Coulson is down."
There were no words for me to say, I stopped in my tracks holding onto the wall, I couldn't bring myself to say anything on the earpiece. I just couldn't believe we lost an agent.
Fury had Tony, Steve and I in the briefing room, I sat next to Steve who had no words and I looked away feeling remorse for Fury since he trusted Phil.
He had the vintage cards in his hands from Phil, "these were in Phil Coulson's jacket, guess he never did get you to sign them."
He threw the cards towards Steve who grabbed one of them and looked at them who has stained blood on them.
Fury looks at us walking around, "we're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. 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 knows this, called THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, 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 had gotten up walking away not hearing anymore of what Fury had to say, "well, it's an old fashioned notion."
Steve and I stand up walking to go to Tony, as we walked Steve looked to me, "what was Tony going to say in that lab?"
"Steve, not now okay? We're grieving over the loss of Coulson," I tell him.
He stops me, "Miranda, is there something else you're not telling me?"
"I can't tell you Steve, I'm sorry," I said as I walked up to him with my hand on his face, "I love you okay? I just have to tell you when I'm ready."
He nods, he gave me a kiss then we both proceeded to see Tony, we got to where he was and I stood on by Steve.
"Was he married?" Steve asked.
"No, there was uh, cellist. I think," Tony responds.
Steve looked down, "I'm sorry, he seemed like a good man."
"He was an idiot."
"Why? For believing?" Steve asked.
"For taking on Loki alone."
He stared at him, "he was doing his job."
"He was out of his league, he should have waited, he should have—"
Steve looks to him, "sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."
Tony began to walk away, "right, how did that work for him?"
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked him.
I looked up to see Tony turn around sharply staring at him and to me, "we are not soldiers! I am not marching to Fury's fight."
"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list—" Steve explained.
Tony looked to the blood stained wall, "he made it personal."
"That's not the point," Steve says.
"Where are you going with this Tony?" I asked him.
"That is the point, that's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony said making a point and staring at us both.
I crossed my arms listening to where he was going with this while Steve knew, "to tear us apart."
"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience," Tony explained.
"Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard," Steve says.
"Yeah, that's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered—"
Tony paused while we looked to him to finish with our eyes wide, "son of a bitch!"
I walk with Steve wearing our uniforms, we walk to where Natasha and Clint are, "time to go."
"Go where?" Natasha asked.
"I'll tell you on the way, can you fly one of those jets?" Steve asked.
Barton walked out of the restroom wiping his hands and looks at Steve, "I can."
Steve looked over at Natasha and she nods her head back in approval that he's on our side, he turns to him, "you got a suit?"
"Yeah."
"Then suit up."
As we started walking away Nat stops me, "what are you doing?"
"I'm coming with you guys," I said as I was going to follow Steve.
She stops me again, "no the hell you're not."
"Wherever he goes, I go okay?" I tell her.
She stared at me, "you're pregnant for gods sake Miranda, one hit you'll—"
"Nat, I'll be fine. Okay? You got my back right?" I asked her.
She nods, "yeah, always."
"Then I'm going."
She smirked as I had walked away to join Steve, he puts on his helmet and applies his shield, I load up the guns I needed to take along with shock repellents.
All of us walked towards the Quinjet as a young shield pilot looks over and begins to stand in our way, "you are not authorized to be here—"
"Son, just don't," Steve says to him sounding like a father already.
Breaks my heart I couldn't tell him but I'm just happy that he's going to be the father of our baby, our little family is starting to grow but this wasn't how I wanted it to start.
As we began to fly out, we arrived in New York seeing that the portal had opened and Iron Man was currently fighting them, "Stark, we're heading north east."
"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay em out for you," Tony says to Natasha.
Steve and I hold onto the ropes above the Quinjet to keep us from falling, he looks over at me standing next to me, "you shouldn't have come, this fight is going to be dangerous."
"I know, but we live for danger don't we?" I asked him smirking.
He smiled at me, "this has become our thing hasn't it? With us fighting together in a battle or another war?"
"Of course it has, it became our thing when I jumped out of that plane with you," I smiled.
He smiled pulling me to him giving me a kiss, "I love you."
"I love you more."
We fly over to Stark tower seeing Thor and Loki fight, Clint looks out his left window, "Nat?"
"See them."
He points the mini-gun to Loki but Loki turns around firing the scepter to our Quinjet, we take a hit and start flying down crash landing. Once the Quinjet crashed we hop off it going into the street, as we go in the middle of the street we hear a loud noise coming from the portal.
As we looked up, a huge Leviathan flies out that looks to be carrying hundreds of soldiers inside, as it flies out hundreds of soldiers cling off it and attach themselves to the buildings.
"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked Tony.
"I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony asked.
"Banner?" Steve asked confused.
"Just keep me posted."
As we were on Bridge Street both Steve and I look down, "those people need assistance down there."
The Chitauri soldiers come to us firing at us while Natasha takes out her pistols and fires at them, with no time to waste I jump off the bridge to go down as Steve is still up there but I wait for him.
Steve's POV
"She should've stayed back," I said staring at Miranda.
Natasha comes to my side, "you know I shouldn't tell you this but I think I should."
"What?" I asked looking to her.
"She's pregnant Cap, reason she came was because you two do everything together. Wherever you go, she goes," she replied continuing to fire.
I took a breath, "she's pregnant?"
"Yes with your baby," she replied then kept firing, "we got this, it's good, go! Go with Miranda!"
I nodded then turned to Clint, "you think can hold them off?"
"Captain," Clint says as he clicks at the triggers of his bow, "it would be my genuine pleasure."
Miranda's POV
As I was ground level I waited for Steve, he's seen jumping down from the bridge, on to the bus running on the roof and both of us run across the plaza as fast as we have ever been.
As we run he looks at me constantly, I looked at him back, "what?"
"When were you gonna tell me?" He asked me.
I looked at him confused, "tell you what?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
I stopped running and caught my breath staring at him, I shook my head, "damn you Natasha."
"So, when were you?" He asked me again coming up to me.
I sighed looking at him, "when this was all over."
He smiled and came to me kissing me, I wrapped my arms around his neck pulling him in, then I stared at him, "come on Captain Sugar, we got a city to save."
He smiled as we both began to keep running, I never wanted him to find out this way but, it seems as though he just might end up finding out.
I just hope to god I don't get killed from this, or the baby.
***********
Hey guys! Sorry for another long chapter again ahah, but let me know what you guys think :)