"Loki, the Norse trickster god. Was the companion to the gods Odin and Thor, and often assisted them with schemes, but also caused them great trouble. He had the ability to shapeshift forms, including his species and gender, and also appeared as the enemy of the gods."
Noelle sighed, and slammed the book shut on the table. She had been trying to do as much research on "Loki" as possible. However, books from the library at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters and articles from the internet were only so helpful.
They all said the same thing, and nothing was consistent with her actual experience– except the fact that Loki was definitely the enemy.
Noelle was beyond frustrated at this point.
"Any luck?" Fury sat down across from her at the table in the library. Noelle didn't look up to meet his gaze. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. Nothing makes sense though. Are you sure this is the same guy from Norse Mythology? Selvig said Loki was Thor's brother. Here it says nothing about that."
Fury folded his hands. "Mythology and fact are not often the same thing."
Noelle sighed. "Either way, we need help. You said the Asgardians attacked New Mexico? What about Thor?"
Fury leaned back in the metal folding chair, causing it to creak. "Intelligence confirms Thor is not a hostile, but he's worlds away. We can't depend on him, or the rest of Asgard. This is up to us."
Noelle crossed her arms, and finally, she looked him in the eye. "And what about you? When are you planning on helping?"
Fury stared at her.
"You were the second most powerful member of the Jedi Order. Don't tell me you forgot how to use the Force."
"I did what I had to do to survive, Smith," Fury said flatly. "Do–"
"So did I," she interrupted. "It's not an excuse, Fury. And you knew the Tesseract was the Space Stone. You lied about that, too."
Fury leaned forward over the table, eye-to-eye with Noelle, and raised his voice higher than typical library standards. "Do you think I would have been promoted to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. if they knew about my abilities? They would have turned me into a weapon."
Noelle gave a sarcastic laugh. "Am I a freak too, then? Is that how S.H.I.E.L.D. sees me? I'm only working with you, because I don't have a choice. You have the intelligence and the means to find Loki, after that we're done."
Fury sat back and crossed his arms. "I'm trying to make the world a better place for people like us. That's why I hid my abilities and will continue to do so."
Noelle sighed. "Better for us or for yourself? Just don't keep expecting me to save you whenever there's a problem. I don't know what game you're playing with me, but once the Tesseract is out of Loki's hands, I'm not helping you."
"I wouldn't dream of it," Fury replied, clearly exasperated. "Now back to the Tesseract and Loki. We're working on locating him. When we do, I'd like you to be the one to bring him in."
"Loki has two Infinity Stones, Fury," she answered, holding up two fingers to emphasize. "It has to be more than just me."
"I know," Fury tossed her another file over the table. "That's why there's someone I'd like you to meet."
~~~~~~~
"Captain Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, crashed somewhere near the Arctic in 1945, sacrificing himself to save the people of New York. However, his body was preserved in ice for almost seventy years."
Noelle tilted her head. "You mean to tell me that Captain America, the most famous American hero of World War II isn't dead?"
"Precisely."
Noelle still wasn't sure how to digest this information. The world had become an even stranger place than the one she knew. A lot of things had shocked her, but the surprises just kept on coming. Saying S.H.I.E.L.D. knew how to keep their secrets was an understatement.
"And he's the guy you want me to meet?"
"Also yes." Fury was tossing the file on the Tesseract back and forth in his hands. "I've been meaning to ask you, after your cells absorbed the energy from the Mind Stone–"
"It enhanced my powers, yes," Noelle interrupted. "I can't explain it... but it's made me... far more powerful than I can handle. I can feel the energy of the stone surging through me, everytime I am about to use the Force, but I've never had this kind of power before."
"So you don't know what you can do?" Fury asked.
"I can do what I did before, but better." Noelle looked down at her hands uncertainly. She still was coming to terms with what had happened to her. What she didn't know, was this for the better or for the worse? She felt much like she had when she had just started her unexpected journey: lost, afraid, directionless, not in control.
But this time, she was truly alone. She didn't have Gandalf or the Jedi to help her this time. All she had was Fury, who she didn't completely trust.
"There's no way I can determine the full range of what I can do, not in an environment like this."
Fury sighed. "Unfortunately you may find out the hard way before this is over."
Noelle knew he was probably right. Who knew what limits she would be pushed to? In some ways she felt more overwhelmed now than she had been when she was on the run. Two infinity stones were in the hands of an enemy and missing, and she was dealing with a power she didn't understand nor was she able to control.
She and Fury had driven to a boxing gym, where Steve Rogers apparently went to on a daily basis. It looked really old-fashioned on the inside and the outside to Noelle– like not much had changed since 1940.
The boxing gym was privately owned, and thankfully the owner didn't seem to mind they were there. All they did was tell him they were friends of Steve Rogers and wanted to see him. Either that, or Fury's eyepatch was unusually intimidating today.
Captain Rogers was on the lower level of the gym. Noelle could hear the sound of someone going to town on a punching bag before they even entered the room.
"Trouble sleeping?" Fury called out.
A tall, blonde muscular guy stopped sacking the punching bag to glance briefly in her and Fury's direction. "Slept for seventy years, sir. Think I've had my fill," he said, resuming his punching.
Noelle frowned. His voice... something seemed familiar about him.
Captain Rogers stopped, and sighed. He looked like he had been doing this for hours already, but he obviously realized that Fury was here because he wanted something. He started unwinding the wraps from his hands, and that was when it dawned on Noelle who he was.
The guy from the alleyway!
"You're the guy from the alleyway!" she blurted out.
Fury turned to look sharply at her, and a look of recognition appeared on Steve's face.
"The Ghost?" he asked.
"Yeah," Noelle said. "That's me." She couldn't believe Nick Fury had the nerve to send Captain America after her, and not say anything!
"Then you should be out. Celebrating. Seeing the world, Captain," Fury said, ignoring the look Noelle was giving him. She was getting tired of his constant "surprises."
Steve headed over towards his things that were sitting on a nearby bench. "I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."
Noelle could still hear the blaster shots firing in her ears. The sounds of lightsabers slicing through battle droids, and the clones shouting above the fray.
Loss. It was something she had gotten far too familiar with over the last eight years. It was war did to you, however. No matter which side won, in the end, everyone lost something. Noelle was used to it at this point, but that didn't make it hurt any less in the end..
"We've made some mistakes along the way," said Fury. "Some very recently."
"You here with a mission, sir?" asked the Captain.
"I am."
"Trying to get me back in the world?"
"Trying to save it." Fury handed him the folder on the Tesseract.
Steve took it from him, and frowned. "HYDRA's secret weapon."
"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs," said Fury.
Noelle scowled, and turned her head sharply in his direction. "And when were you planning to tell me this?"
"I don't need to tell you anything, Smith," Fury replied warningly. "The Tesseract is not your property, remember?"
Steve handed him back the file. "Who took it from you?"
"He's called Loki– he's not from around here."
The longer Noelle stuck around with Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. the more she was beginning to regret it. It was clear Fury had his own agenda on the Tesseract and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s role in "protecting" the world. He knew what the stones were, and how dangerous they were and what they were capable of in the wrong hands, yet if Noelle was going to make an educated guess, she would say Fury was likely taking matters into his own hands on what was to be done with such a perilous artifact. They might have had the same goal– the safety of planet Earth, but Noelle didn't feel they had the same vision on what that looked like.
She wondered if he was making weapons...
Steve stood up with the punching bag slung over one shoulder, and the bag in his other hand.
"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury was asking him as he walked away.
"You should have left it in the ocean." Steve didn't sound happy. In fact, he sounded nearly as aggravated as Noelle was feeling.
"Hey... Steve," she started.
He stopped and turned around.
"Do you... need some company walking home?" Noelle could feel Fury looking at her out of the corner of her eye.
Steve looked unsure, but then he nodded. "Some company would be nice, actually," he said.
Noelle gave him a half-smile, and ran to grab the exit door of the gym to hold it open for him.
When she glanced at Fury, he looked a little surprised, but not suspicious of anything.
"I'll meet you back at Headquarters," she said to him as she followed Steve out the door. "I think it's time I finally met Captain America formally."
~~~~~~
Steve Rogers seemed to be a fairly normal guy, and contrary to what people might have joked about him, he didn't give Noelle "old man" vibes, or "grandpa" vibes. Maybe it was just the fact that she could relate to him feeling utterly lost in a new world.
"No hard feelings about what happened in the alleyway, right?"
Noelle hadn't expected that question. She shrugged. "Why would there be? You were following orders, and Fury didn't give you all the details apparently. Besides, I don't really want to make you a personal enemy anyway. I have enough of those."
Steve smiled. "Yeah, well, that's one of the only good things about waking up seventy years later. All the people who hated you are dead."
And all the people you loved, Noelle thought with a twinge of sadness. Although she hadn't woken up in the future, she could relate to what Steve was feeling more than he knew.
"It's kind of weird for me, too," she said as they turned a corner. "I haven't been here on Earth in eight years."
"Eight years? Where were you?" Steve looked up in surprise.
Noelle gestured upwards towards the sky. "Up there, in space, fighting other people's battles." She sighed. "Look, I don't know what Fury wants with the Tesseract, but–"
"You don't trust him?" Steve finished.
"Yeah," said Noelle. "Exactly. You fought and almost died to keep that cube out of the wrong hands. I'm not one-hundred percent comfortable with S.H.I.E.L.D. being the ones to harness the power of that thing. They have no idea what they're truly dealing with," she added.
Steve nodded. "I understand that. But where would the Tesseract be kept out of the wrong hands?"
Steve had a point, she realized. Noelle didn't know what should be done with the Tesseract once they got it back, but if not S.H.I.E.L.D., who else would take care of it? She was about to ask the Captain what motivated him to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. after he had been frozen in the ice for seventy years. He had woken up and automatically trusted S.H.I.E.L.D.? It didn't make sense to her, but she didn't ask. After all, she had just met the guy. She just hoped he didn't end up being another one of Fury's little tricks too, like Coulson had been.
They were now across the street from where Steve's apartment building was.
"You sure I can't get you a bite before you head back to HQ?" he asked.
Noelle shook her head. "No, thank you. I appreciate the offer though. I have to get back."
Steve nodded. "Alright. It was nice meeting you then, Miss..."
"Noelle, just Noelle is fine," she said with a smile.
With that, she watched Steve cross the street and stood there for a long time, far longer than after he had entered the building. She sighed. She should be getting back to Headquarters to see if Fury had any updates on the whereabouts of Loki...
Suddenly, a text popped up on her phone.
Unknown Number: We're calling them in. Meet Agent Coulson tomorrow morning at 8am for further instructions.
Noelle texted back. Has L been found?
Not yet, but until we do, I want everyone on board to take to the skies.
Noelle wondered what that meant, but knew better than to ask. Fury wouldn't tell her directly anyway.
She would have to wait and find out tomorrow.