𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀
"Gentlemen." Fury said as Natasha and I walked away.
Barton had been taken by Loki and we were trying to locate him and the Tesseract.
"Hey, Maria." I sighed, standing next to her.
"Everything ok? You and Romanoff seem... tense. Her more than you." she noticed.
"We're fine." I shook my head. "I just... I reminded her of something she didn't want to be reminded of. It's my fault. How's it going with the Tesseract?"
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." Coulson spoke from the computers. "Cell phones, laptops... if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ear for us."
"That's still not gonna find them in time." Natasha finally spoke up.
"You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Banner questioned.
"How many are there?" asked Fury.
"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. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff." Fury called. "Could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"
"You're gonna love it, Doc. We've got all the toys." I heard Natasha say as she walked out, making me blush slightly.
Guess that crush never left, huh?
~
"I mean... if it's not too much trouble." Coulson spoke up as we waited for something to happen.
"No, no, it's fine." Steve shook his head.
Phil wanted his hero, Captain America, to sign his trading cards. Steve said it was fine, yet his face was saying something very different.
"It's a vintage set." I had to bite my lip to stop myself from giggling as Steve sighed, annoyed.
Clearly, Phil didn't get the hint as he kept going.
"It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges, but-" he got cut off by an agent.
"We got a hit. A 67% match." Jasper Sitwell said from the computer. "Wait, cross-match, 79%."
"Location?" Phil went over to him.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
"Captain." Fury called as Steve turned toward him. "You're up."
"Good luck." I sent him a soft smile, which he returned.
~
"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha ordered as we sat in the jet, pointing the machine guns toward Loki.
Loki sent a blast toward us and we dodged it. Steve and Loki started fighting as Natasha and I tried to get a clean shot.
"The guy's all over the place. I can't get a clean shot." Natasha muttered.
Suddenly, rock music started playing over the speakers, making Nat and I furrow our eyebrows.
"Agent Pierce. Agent Romanoff. You miss me?" Tony Stark. Of course.
I smirked as Natasha chuckled. Tony flew down in his Iron Man suit, blasting Loki, throwing him to the ground.
"Make your move, Reindeer Games." Tony said as he aimed his firearms at Loki.
Steve stood beside Tony as Loki's golden armour disappeared and his hands raised in surrender.
"Good move." Tony nodded.
~
Steve and Tony brought Loki onto the jet, tying him down to the seat.
"Is he saying anything?" Fury asked as we flew back to the helicarrier.
"Not a word." I said.
"Get him here. We're low on time."
Suddenly, there was lightning in the sky, which appeared out of nowhere, might I add.
"Where is this coming from?" muttered Nat.
"What's the matter? You scared of a little lightning?" I heard Steve ask.
"Not overly fond of what follows." Loki replied.
Something- or someone- landed on the top of the jet, causing turbulence. Natasha and I tried to get the jet back under control as Steve grabbed his Shield and Tony put his helmet back on.
Tony opened the back door and he got thrown back into Steve. I looked back and saw Thor grab Loki and flying away. Tony and Steve got back up, ready to attack.
"And now there's that guy." Tony muttered.
"Another Asgardian?" asked Natasha.
"His brother." I told her.
"That guy's a friendly?" Steve asked.
"Yes. Just... don't let him take Loki. If he frees him, the Tesseract's lost."
Tony went to the door and was about to fly off.
"Stark! We need a plan of attack." Steve stopped him.
"I have a plan. Attack." he jumped out flying away after Thor.
Rogers grabbed a parachute, making me look at Nat.
"I'd sit this one out, Cap." she agreed with me as she told Steve.
"I don't see how I can." he shook his head, attaching the parachute to his body.
"These guys come from legend. They're basically gods." I said, trying to convince him to stay.
"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." he ignored us, grabbed his Shield, and jumped out.
"Why does he keep calling us "ma'am"? It's annoying. It makes me feel old." I muttered.
"He's old-fashioned. Give him a break." Natasha chuckled.
"Can I know... why didn't you ever speak to me? I know you saw me. We crossed paths all the time. You knew I was a part of the Red Room. Why didn't you get to know me?"
"I didn't want to be reminded of what we went through, Kat. I didn't remember you, but I knew that if I spoke to you, I would remember everything the Red Room did to us." she explained.
~
We all watched on the cameras as Fury put Loki in the cell that was going to be for Bruce.
"In case it's unclear if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass," Fury clicked a button which opened the way to the ground which was 30,000 feet down. "it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" he closed it. "Ant," he pointed towards Loki. "Boot." he pointed at the button.
Loki laughed as he walked around in the cage.
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." he told him.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you."
"Oh I've heard." he looked to the camera.
I looked up at Bruce, knowing that's who he was talking about, feeling bad.
"A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you? That you call on such lost creatures to defend you." I scoffed, getting offended.
"Asshole." I muttered, making Natasa chuckle.
"How desperate am I?" asked Nick. "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."
"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."
Fury chuckled before speaking.
"Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something." he walked away.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce chuckled.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. 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." he explained.
"An army. From outer space. Yes, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it, Romanoff?" I looked at her.
She snickered and we paid attention again.
"So, he's building another portal." Bruce told us. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
"Selvig?" questioned Thor.
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha sighed.
"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's definitely not leading an army from here." Steve added.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Bruce shook his head. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."
"Thor... he killed 80 people in 2 days..." I told him.
"He's adopted." he said, making me laugh quietly.
"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium. What do they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asked.
"It's a stabilising agent." Stark walked into the room. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself as it did at SHIELD. 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." he explained. "Uh... raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." he gave orders earning him looks from SHIELD agents, making me laugh. "That man is playing Galaga." he pointed to a SHIELD agent that wasn't doing his job. "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." he covered his eye with one hand, turning around to see the computers. "How does Fury even see these?" he asked.
"He turns." Maria gave him a look, crossing her arms, unamused.
"Sounds exhausting." he muttered. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily." he took a look on the computers. "The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy-density. Something to kick-start the Cube."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria questioned.
"Last night." he said, making all of us raise an eyebrow. "The packet. Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" he scoffed.
"Yes. Yes, you are." I nodded.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" asked Steve.
"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce added.
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony said.
"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally. Someone who speaks English." Tony smiled as he walked over to him.
"That's not English. That's nerd language." I said, causing Tony's smile to fade as I snickered.
"Is that what just happened?" muttered Steve.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
"Thanks... I think." Bruce nodded.
"Tony, stop it." I smacked his arm.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury walked in.
"I would start with that stick of his." Steve said. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"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 of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor shook his head, confused.
"I do!" Steve said, making me chuckle. "I understood that reference."
"Good boy, Stevie." I joked and he sent me a glare.
"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked.
"This way, sir." Bruce pointed toward his lab.
"Ok, I need a drink." I got up.
"You're working." Steve said.
"I don't care, I need a drink. Natasha?"
"I need one too." she got and we went to the locker that they had given me.
I took out a flask and took a sip of it.
"That was a lot of information. I don't think I'm gonna be able to remember all of that." I chuckled, passing the flask to Natasha.
"Me neither." she took a sip. "Katherine, we need to talk..." I knew what she was going to say.
"Don't. It's ok." it was most definitely not ok. I was fucking pissed. "We don't have to talk about why you forgot the one person who actually wanted you to succeed." I took a long drink and handed I handed it back to her. "You can finish it. I have more in my locker." I walked away.