Back on the bridge, agents were clamoring about.
Currently at 18456 and dropping, Nick Fury was managing the consul, trying to keep them in the air.
"All hands to crash station immediately." The PA system annnounced, a little later than needed, and at this point, it was obsolete.
On deck, a rouge jet took off, Loki in the back, hatred burning in his eyes.
In the prison, Fury ran up to his best agent, who was lying on the ground, a hole in his stomach.
"Sorry, boss." Phil wheezed out as Fury knelt near him, "the god rabbited."
Nick moved the gun off of him, alleviating some pressure. "Just stay awake," he demanded, "eyes on me."
Phil let a calm smile grace his face, "No, I'm clocking out here."
"Not an option.
"It's okay, boss. This was never going to work-" he took a breath, readying his next words, "if they didn't have somthing. to..."
He never finished his scentence, but Fury coud finish it for him. He slowly stood up, knowing what to do.
He backed up, letting the medical team take the body of SHIELD agent Phil Coulson.
Maria Hill was sitting on bridge, getting cleaned up when she got something through her com.
"Agent Coulson is down."
She shooed away the man cleaning her forehead, listening to the messages coming through.
"A medical team is on its way to your location."
"They're here."
In the underbody, Natasha and Clint were being dragged into the medical wing, Thor looking as they passed.
"They called it."
By the engines, Tony and Steve stood, processing what happened. The traitorous agents lying on the floor around them, the whir of the engine sounding around them.
Thor, Tony, and Steve were sitting around a table, still processing the attack. Fury was standing at the head, preparing himself for what he was going to do.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them."
Fury flung the vintage Captain America trading cards that were covered in Phil's blood onto the table.
Steve was reaching for the cards when Fury continued.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our comunications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Romanoff Jr... I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."
Steve took one last look at the call before putting it down.
"Yes," Fury continued, "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. This idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To 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 stood abruptly, silently walking away from the table.
"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion." Fury said, staring after Tony's retreating form.
On the ground, Bruce was starting to some to. He was lying in a pile of dirt and destroyed wild flowers.
He could see a sleeping Percy on the edge of the crater facing away from him, a blanket thrown haphazardly near her.
Before he could notice anything else Percy spoke.
"You can use the blanket if you need. The army dudes gave it to me." she said
"Did I hurt anybody?"
"There's nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare a couple army men a while back though. But they were too scared to get close enough to get hurt."
Back on the Helicarrier, Natasha was getting rid of the leftover mind control while Clint sat on the chair next to her.
"What does it feel like?"
"When it happends, they pull you out. They stuff something else in. Sometimes someone else. You're unmade, and put back together again, but different. But you know this isn't the first time. You know that." She paused for a second, taking a deep breath, "How did you get me back?"
"Thor hit you with his hammer. It rebooted your brain."
Clint went to undo her restraints, getting them as Natasha started speaking.
"How many agents did I kill?"
"None."
"That's good. But people will die. Loki's going to make his play soon, though. Today. We will stop him though."
"This isn't you. You don't 'stop' people. You watch them. You eliminate them. You don't 'stop' them. That word is too blunt for your liking. You don't get in front of them, you sneak around the sides."
Natasha stopped for a minute, letting Clint sit down next to her. She looked him in his eyes.
"He was in my head. He knows about them. He knows about her."
"My 'her' or your 'her'?"
"Clint Frances Barton, can you be serious for one minute?"
Else where, Tony and Steve were staring at the empty tank. In the room where Phil was killed.
"Was he married?" Steve asked.
"No." Tony didn't move, just staring into the empty cage, "there was a cellist, I think."
Neither moved still, but Steve spoke. "I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."
"He was an idiot."
"Why?! For believing?!"
"For taking on Loki alone."
"He was doing his job."
Tony scoffed, "he was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..."
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."
"Right, I've heard that before."
"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?"
Tony snapped around, "We are not soldiers." He took a breath, reasurring himself. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."
"He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now, we got to put that behind us, and get this done. Loki needs a power source."
Tony took a glance to the wall and the stain contained on it.
Steve continued, "If we can put together a list-"
"He made it personal."
Steve sighed and stared at him, "that's not the point."
"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"
"To tear us apart."
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."
"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."
"Yeah, that was jus the previews. This is the opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right?" Tony stepped up the stairs after pacing around, "he wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-"
The two stared at eachother, sudden realzation came across their faces.
"Son of a bi-"