Once we had landed, Nat loaded up her pistols and I grabbed my bow and quiver, notching an arrow into my bow just in case, just as Clint had taught me and we ran off the jet looking for the men. I could hear the unmistakable sounds of metal on metal coming from our left, so nodding to Nat, we took off that way. It stopped for a moment, and just as we reached the clearing, we saw the man who had taken Loki jump at Steve with some sort of hammer. He brought it over his head and then slammed it down on Steve's shield sending a shockwave through the clearing, knocking everyone off their feet, including me and Nat. We were thrown a few feet and I rolled as I hit the ground. I stood up slowly, checking for injuries.
"Nat you good?" i asked, walking over and helping her up.
"Yeah, I think just some scrapes and bruises, but I've had worse," she replied dusting off her hands. We walked into the clearing where Steve, dad and the other guy had retrieved Loki and were standing there, looking a little sheepish. The other man was tall, blonde and was wearing what looked like armor with a red cape.
"Ok are you guys done with the second pissing contest of the night?" I asked, angrily. "I would really like to not be in the middle of anymore of them tonight."
"Oh, brother, I do like her very much, she is feisty," Loki smirked. Before the blonde man could say anything, I had crossed the group and slapped Loki across the face.
"You know exactly what that is for, you son of a bitch," I snarled at him. I turned and walked past everyone heading back to the jet, ignoring the looks of shock and pride on their faces. Dad chuckled.
"That's my girl," I heard him say from behind. I made it back to the jet before anyone else, and I was in the process of getting it ready to go when they stomped back in and proceeded to basically tie Loki up again. Nat came over and sat down in her seat.
"Feel better?" she asked, smirking slightly.
"Yes although, I think I may have bruised my hand slapping him," I responded, looking down at my palm. Nat just laughed and settled in. Dad came up behind us.
"Ready to go kiddo. Not to say I'm not proud or impressed, but why did you slap him?" he asked looking down at me.
"We will talk about it later dad. I need to focus right now," I said shortly. He could tell I was still upset, so he nodded and walked back to the others. I got us in the air and turned on auto pilot. I turned my seat and put my head in my hands.
"You ok?" Nat asked me again. I lifted my head, nodding.
"I shouldn't have done that. I'm too close to this. I don't understand why Fury even let me come on this mission anyway," I responded looking down at the floor.
"Because you are one of the best pilots we have, and the best damn archer we have. And yes even better than Clint. He has said it himself many times," Nat said smiling at me. I smiled back at her.
"That's just because he loves me and doesn't want to piss me off," I chuckled.
"Well if that's the case he is smart, but he isn't wrong. You can definitely give him a run for his money any day. Challenge him when he gets back. You'll see," she said. I looked up to dad and Steve talking to the new guy. He noticed that I was looking and walked over to me.
"Hello my good ladies. I wished to formally introduce myself. I am Thor Odinson, of Asgard, and God of Thunder," he said giving us a slight bow.
"Told you cap. Gods," I called to Steve pointing at Thor. He rolled his eyes at me and laughed. "Well its a pleasure to meet you Thor. I'm Aurora Stark but you can call me Rory and this is Natasha Romanoff. Sorry for slapping your friend there."
"He is my brother, and he deserved a good slap for the trouble he has caused. I'm sorry for any pain he has caused you," he responded, looking back at Loki. I only nodding, looking over at him too. He had that creepy smirk on his face again, and I shivered again. I could only imagine what this man had done to Clint.
"We should be back at base soon so everybody strap in please," I called turning back around. After about 20 minutes, we were coming up on base. After receiving permission to land, I put us down in the hangar, where a security team was waiting for us, so that they could take Loki into custody. After he had been led away, I left the jet for the mechanics to check over and I disembarked with Nat. We all headed inside to the main bridge where we all sat down at a huge table. I was exhausted and all I wanted was a nap. I crossed my arms on the table and laid my head on them for a minute. I could feel myself dozing off, and right before I was fully asleep, Nat gently shook my shoulder.
"Sorry, I'm just tired. I haven't gotten much sleep since I was at the tower," I told her. "Plus stressing about the whole Loki thing and Clint, I'm just tired."
"I get it," she said. "But you are going to want to hear this. Fury is going to talk to Loki." This perked me up instantly. Suddenly there was a screen on the table that popped up that showed Loki in a glass cage. Just then Fury walked in.
"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass, it's a one way trip down 30,000 feet in a steel death trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot," he explained to Loki. I looked over at Nat a little confused by the ant and boot comment. She just shrugged.
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me," Loki said, clearly amused.
"Built for something much stronger than you," Fury retorted.
"Oh I've heard," Loki sneered, looking into the cameras, as though he could look straight at us. We all looked up at Banner who smiled a bit sadly. "The mindless beast, who makes play he is still a man. How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures 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," Fury replied, sounding both furious and sad at the same time.
"It burns you to have come so close," Loki smirked at Fury through the glass. "To have the tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. For what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what true power is." Fury did not seem impressed, but he smirked at Loki and began to walk away.
"Well let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," he retorted in amusement. After a few seconds the video feed disappeared.
"Well this just gets weirder and weirder," I mumbled under my breath and Nat laughed.
"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce asked sarcastically and I grunted in amusement.
"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked. They began to discuss Loki and his plan. I wasn't really paying attention. I was looking at the spot where the security feed had been and wondered about Clint. I couldn't help but wonder if he was ok, and where he was. I knew I needed to get my head on straight but I just couldn't think straight. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard my dad's voice as he came into the room.
"Iridium is a stabilizing agent," dad said as he walked in. I turned to see him walking in with Phil and he had a smirk on his face. He walked over to us and patted Thor on the arm as he passed. "No hard feelings, point break, you've got a mean swing." Thor looked confused and I snorted out a laugh. Dad winked at me and walked over to Fury's command post. "It also means that the portal can stay open as long and as wide as Loki wants. Uh raise the mid mast, ship the top sails."
"Portal?" I asked Nat. She smirked.
"That's how Loki got into base in the first place. He has an army coming. That's how we think he is planning on getting them here. You should really pay more attention during the briefings," she explained, still smirking.
"That man is playing Galaga! He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did," dad continued, sounding a little crazy now. I just rolled my eyes at him. "The rest of the raw materials, agent Barton could get his hands on rather easily. The only major thing that they need left is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics dad? I mean I know that's what I majored in but you never showed any interest before?" I asked looking up at him in surprise.
"Last night," he responded, looking at me. "The packet, Dr. Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular power source?" Steve asked, seeming overly confused by all of the information being thrown around.
"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner said.
"Not unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," I responded, getting a little excited at the science talk.
"If he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner finished, smiling.
"Finally, someone other than my daughter who speaks English," dad said sounding amazed, walking over to shake Bruce's hand. I laughed and Steve looked over at me in utter confusion.
"Is that what just happened? Because I'm confused," he said. I just smiled at him and patted his hand.
"It's ok Steve. A lot of people normally are," I assured him smiling slightly.