Chapter 37
"Natasha Romanoff!" Athena said smirking as the Black Widow herself made her way towards the goddess, with a smile on her face. It was unusual for the other agents in the hellicarrier to see Natasha with a friendly smile.
"Miss Stark," Natasha retorted making Athena drop her smirk, "I'm kidding, it's good to see you Nina!"
"Good to see you too Nat, how do you feel, you know with Clint being apprehended by this Loki dumbass, I know you two were close."
Natasha sighed, "I can only hope he doesn't harm him, Clint can't be that far gone, I know he's still in there somewhere."
Natasha may not be the most open person around, but with Athena that was surely going to change. The bond that they had formed together while missioning in Greece before Athena's disappearance, had made them close.
"Do you think this face trace will work fast enough to find him?" Natasha asked.
"To be honest Nat, I don't think so, which is why you were sent to bring Dr. Banner, hopefully he has a better plan than this."
"And Coulson was getting you, your dad, and Captain Rogers."
"What?" Athena said shocked, "Steve is coming?" Her senses hyped up just knowing that she would see him again.
"I see you are on first name basis with him," Natasha smirked.
"I was his teacher Nat, nothing more, just how we were too."
"Ah huh, keep telling yourself that Nina, I'll be back," Natasha smirked as she left.
Athena rolled her eyes playfully, and wondered if she had become transparent enough for Natasha to notice her sudden excitement for seeing Steve again.
As the face trace began, Coulson came in and stood by Athena's side. She felt the engines starting to engage, soon they would all be in the air.
From the other side of the hellicarrier, Natasha was coming in with Dr. Banner and Steve. Athena smiled as she noticed him take in the view around them, amazed by the technology and architecture. She decided to greet Dr. Banner who seemed to be a bit off place.
"Dr. Banner, it's a pleasure to meet you," Athena said as she extended her hand for him to shake.
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Stark."
"It'll be a pleasure to work with you once my dad arrives, but please call me Nina," Athena smiled.
"I'm looking forward to it, Nina," he replied politely.
She noticed Steve came by and was ready to greet her, until Fury came.
"Gentleman," Fury said.
Steve went up to him and gave him a $10 bill. Fury greeted the doctor and Athena stayed behind as the face trace continued. Steve was still too amazed at the grandeur of the Hellicarrier to greet Athena, but in sincerity it was because he couldn't muster up the courage in how to talk to her. He was never good at talking with beautiful women.
"Agent Romanoff, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory please," Fury announced.
"You're gonna love it doc, we got all the toys," Natasha said as Bruce followed behind her.
Athena was also going to exit the command room before Fury called her again.
"Agent Starkenios, mind showing Captain Rogers his sleeping quarters and where his new uniform is located?"
"Yes sir," Athena nodded.
It seemed like the opportunity to finally catch up was given to them.
Steve smiled timidly at Athena before finally approaching her confidently. They left the command room towards the halls that would lead him to his uniform first.
"Ma'am," he smiled
"I thought I told you to call me Athena," she reminded him.
"Sorry ma'am," he started to blush, "Yes ma'am sorry uh..."
Athena giggled, "You're too proper."
"Are you planning on fixing me too? Teach me how to talk in this day," he smiled at her.
"Nah, you're amazing just the way you are..." Athena said gazing at his clear blue eyes.
Looking into his eyes, a realization hit her. She's been here before. The exact same words being exchanged between the two made her realize that she's dreamt this before. Deja Vu.
Before Steve could notice that she was starring to long, she composed herself quickly and kept the conversation going.
"You skip Miss Athena and go right for the ma'am," she laughed, making Steve laugh as well. She was trying to make him feel comfortable, less nervous around her.
"Well, it's not everyday you are in the presence of a beautiful lady," Steve said. Who also deserves respect, he thought to himself thinking quickly of the old man in the cafe when Harry was with Athena.
Athena was mesmerized, "you're such a gentleman Steve, I appreciate that, thank you."
They looked at each other smiling knowingly. Steve knew that if he would stare too long into her brown eyes, he would blush and try to hide it quickly. Athena knew she had to keep her emotions in check. She was an agent and to get missed up with a fling now was not the time.
"Here is the room where your new uniform will be waiting for you," Athena opened the door for Steve to enter first, but he declined letting her go in and he following after. "There's only a few modifications, I hope this fits well for you."
"I appreciate all of this, thank you."
"No need to thank me Steve, this is all SHIELD, now if you would follow me to your room," she exited the room, leading Steve to a hall where he his room was located, "here we are, see for yourself," she opened the door for him.
Steve went inside first and Athena followed. He surveyed the room carefully, knowing it was comfortable enough for him. He turned back to Athena, and smiled, "this is perfect."
"Glad to hear," she smiled.
Steve had a growing curiosity about her sudden disappearance and wanted to know more, but thought that maybe it was inappropriate to ask. He quickly debated in his mind if he should or not. He decided to take a risk, and couldn't believe his heart started to pound slightly faster.
"Athena, I'm sorry if this may be inappropriate for me to ask, but what happened to you?" He was surprised how he was able to ask so calmly without a stutter.
Athena taken aback by his curiosity, sighed momentarily, "don't apologize Steve, I guess you do have the right to know since our lessons were cut short..." She hesitated, she knew she had to lie to him and that would crush her later on, she knew that, but being within SHIELD she had to. Her father warned her about who she told the truth to. "As you know, I was uh meant to go on several missions with Agent Romanoff and after our long month of missions I was attacked by an enhanced person who put me into a hibernating mode until SHIELD found me again..."
Steve stood by, taking in her words, he was confused.
"I wish I could tell you more, but it's all classified info that SHIELD is working on."
"No no, you don't need to give me details, I'm just glad you're ok," Steve said genuinely.
"Thank you Steve," Athena smiled. She noticed Steve was more caring towards her than Harry. Harry would question her without asking how she felt or was ok. This was new to her. "I'll give you some privacy to your needs, I'll be around if you need me, or any other agent is fine."
"I prefer a familiar face, but thank you," Steve said with a knowing smile that made Athena's heart pound slightly faster than usual. Also, it made her smile and put her head down as she exited his room so Steve couldn't see her slight blush.
•••
Hours later, Athena arrived in the command room, where the face trace was still taking place. She smiled when she seen Steve, who happened to be talking with a blonde agent who Athena still didn't know. It seemed as if the agent was explaining the face trace to him and Steve paid close attention to her demonstrations on the screen. With a friendly nod Steve thanked her and stood next to Phil.
"Any luck so far?" Athena approached Agent Hill.
"None, but I think we're getting close, thanks to Dr. Banner," she said.
"We got a hit!" An agent announced, "67%, no 79% match."
"Location?" Phil inquired.
"Stuttgart, Germany. He's not exactly hiding."
"Captain," Fury said, "you're up."
Athena watched as Steve nodded and headed to where she had instructed him on the location of where his uniform was.
"Good luck Steve..." she said softly as he passed by.
"Thank you, Athena," he replied.
"Stark, in the meantime, assist Dr.Banner in the lab, whatever we get back from Loki, you're the only one who can contain it," Fury ordered.
"Yes sir," Athena nodded heading towards the lab.
Athena came across Natasha, who was on her way to the hanger, most likely to pilot Steve to Germany.
"You're not coming Nina?" Natasha asked.
"No, I'm going to assist Dr. Banner in the lab until you guys come back."
"Interesting, I thought Fury would have you tag along since we're dealing with a psychotic god!"
"If you need me, just let me know,"
"Hm, I like the way you think Stark," Natasha smirked, "here," she handed Athena an ear piece, "I have a direct channel to you, I'll let you know if we need back up."
"Good luck Nat!"
For the remainder of time, Athena assisted Dr. Banner in the lab. With her help, they set up the lab for any circumstance that Loki would bring, specifically the tesseract.
"Honestly, I don't think they'll be able to retrieve the tesseract," Athena said while punching in data on a screen.
Dr. Banner stopped momentarily what he was doing to look in Athena's direction, "is that a concrete feeling or just a guess?"
"I'm pretty sure."
"You don't believe in Captain Rogers?" Dr. Banner asked.
"It has nothing to do with him, but if Director Fury really wants it in SHIELDS hands again, then he should've send all the reinforcements he's got, and that includes you as well Dr. Banner..."
"I'm only here to track it, and help with it, I'm gone after that," he said curtly.
"Now do you really believe that," Athena questioned him, "I don't, instead of fearing the other guy as you like to call him, why don't you embrace it, it's a part of you..."
"Easy for you to say when you're so in control of your powers," he said trying to deflect from the conversation.
"Dr. Banner I--"
"Nina! We need you!" Natasha's voice came in abruptly through Athena's earpiece.
"Nat?" Athena put her finger on the piece to see if it really was Natasha, "Nat can you hear me?"
"Yes, we need you, your dad decided to show up and help with Loki, but so did your old buddy Thor and he took him, your dad and Captain Rogers are not seeing eye to eye and frankly I don't think Thor will either."
"Send me their coordinates I'll be there..." she said. She excused herself from Dr. Banner and quickly headed to a nearby exit.
Natasha had just sent the coordinates of her dad's location when she opened the door to be hit by the wind from outside the hellicarrier. With her power, she was able to subdue the air around her as she walked out towards the other aircrafts that were secured in place. Athena knew she could fly, she was confident in her power. She remembered the words of Hekate, to concentrate and to keep the energy flowing. It would be easier if she opened her ethereal portal and teleported there, but she had to envision where exactly her dad, Thor, and Steve were at.
Soon enough, Athena was in the air, using her element to make towards the coordinates that Natasha sent her.
It wasn't hard for Athena to find them, a metal man dragging a god through the air was sure enough to be the people she was looking for.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Athena said to herself, exasperated.
Not long after, Steve came to try to stop the fighting, "Hey! That's enough. Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here," he threw his shield at both Tony and Thor.
"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes," Thor explained, still raging.
"Then prove it," Steve said, "put that hammer down."
"Yeah... No. Bad call. He loves his hammer," Tony interfered, then was thrown back by Thor's hammer.
"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thot raged coming for Steve.
Athena was about to interfere and come between them, but she saw Loki, smiling mischievously at the chaos he started, because no one was paying attention to him at all, and was his time to escape.
"Where do you think you're going?" Athena appeared in front of him just in time.
Loki was taken aback, he had thought he was alone. Before he could respond, Thor's hammer collided against the Captain's shield, ricocheting everything back. The power of the vibration reached both Loki and Athena, but her shield was up before it could send them both back. When everything calmed, Athena using her air element made the clouds fly away, clearing the fog. With Loki, still in hand, she flew from the mountain where she and Loki were to meet the boys on the ground.
"So, are you guys done here?" Athena said clearly not amused at how everything went, "while you were all showing how tough you are, this one was trying to escape!" She gestured to Loki.
"Who called you in?" Tony asked his daughter.
"Dad, that's not important, you should know better!"
"Nat? Nat come in, I got them."
"Coming through," replied Natasha through Athena's ear piece.
"Lets go," Athena said with Loki still in hand. She had her force field shield acting as handcuffs on Loki and she led them to the quinjet.
•••
Back in the hellicarrier, Natasha, Athena, and Steve all sat in a round table in the command room, while Dr. Banner and Thor stood. They all watched and heard the same person, Loki. Who, was at the moment being threatened by Director Fury.
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me," Loki said with his dubious smile.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury said.
"Oh, I've heard," Loki said with a sly smirk, looking directly at the camera, "a mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man." At this both Athena and Natasha looked at each other briefly, before they looked at Dr. Banner who found it somehow amusing that a god was taunting him, "how desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"
Athena kept listening to the rest of the conversation till finally, the screen went black.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he," Dr. Banner said amused, but Athena knew he was only in denial, trying to brush it off as if it was nothing.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve spoke up.
"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," Thor explained.
"Like hell they will," Athena spoke up.
"He surely underestimates you, Lady Athena."
"So an army, from outer space?" Steve said.
"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Dr. Banner said.
"Selvig?" Thor questioned.
"He's an astrophysicist," Dr. Banner informed him.
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha said desperately.
"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here," Steve said.
Athena quickly looked at Steve, and he noticed, but tried to play it off like nothing to not seem nervous around her. What he just said, made Athena come to a realization: Loki had seemed as if he surrendered, why would he be so calm why being captured?
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother!" Thor defended.
"He killed 80 people in two days," Natasha spoke up.
"He's adopted," Thor said.
Athena tried not to laugh, "and bitter he's not King of Asgard, but more importantly, Steve's right, why would he be so calm while we captured him? He's not leading anything from here, he's clearly up to something."
Everyone looked at Athena, seeing she was on to something, but Dr. Banner interrupted with another thought.
"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium... What do they need the iridium for?" Dr. Banner said.
"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony's voice came from behind as he walked in the command room with Coulson, "it means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. No hard feelings point break, you've got a mean swing," he came up to Thor and lightly slapped his biceps. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails," he ordered the rest of the agents as if he was the captain of a ship. Everyone, including Athena gave him a look, "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did. How does Fury even see these?"
"He turns," said Maria.
"That's exhausting, the rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube," Tony said
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria questioned.
"Last night," he said and Maria gave him a look, "the packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.
"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Athena said and everyone besides Tony looked at her, "I'm an MIT alumni too guys, plus I read all of Selvig's notes too."
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect," Tony reminded.
"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," said Dr. Banner.
"Finally, someone besides Nina and I who speaks English!" Tony said.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve said, but Athena smiled at him, making him blush slightly.
"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," Tony almost fan girled.
"Thanks," Dr. Banner said.
"Dr Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you and Athena might join him," Fury came to the group.
"I would start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon," Steve suggested.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys," Fury said.
"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor said confused.
"I do!" Steve quirked up, and Tony rolled his eyes, "I understood that reference."
"Shall we play doctor?" Tony asked Dr. Banner.
"This way, sir." Bruce introduced the way.
"You coming Nina?" Tony asked his daughter.
"I'll be right there," Athena said.
Before Athena could follow, she knew she had to talk to Thor briefly.
"It's good to see you, Thor."
"Good to see a familiar face, how are you Lady Athena?"
"I'm very well, thank you, do you mind taking a walk with me? I need to talk to you where no one can hear us..."
Thor noticed how serious Athena was and nodded following her through the hellicarrier. Steve undoubtedly noticed their departure and wondered if there was anything going on between the both of them. He thought himself incredible stupid, but decided to not let it bother him and wondered of.
"Thor, I assume you know that I've been to Olympus and for the time being I hope I can trust you with keeping this secret from SHIELD," Athena said.
"You have my word, Lady Athena."
"Thank you, I would also like to apologize on my dad's behalf, he tends to not work well with others," Athena explained.
"No need to worry."
Athena smiled, "great, but now the reason why I truly wanted to talk to you is because why is there an infinity stone or cube on Earth in the first place? How did it get here? I thought it was part of your father's treasure room."
"If I recall correctly, it has been here for decades, and this organization has been keeping it hidden, my intent is to get my brother back home with it."
"And what of the other stones?"
"At the moment, no one knows where they are my lady, I don't believe it to be a cause for action now, the tesseract however, I believe this organization led Loki to take action because it's been in their possession for so long."
Athena thought about it, it made sense. Why would SHIELD have anything to do with the tesseract now, what exactly were they hiding that she did not know. These were the same thoughts that she expressed to Tony before coming on board.
"Thank you, Thor, I hope Jane is alright, wherever she may be."
"Yes of course, but if you would excuse me, I would like to ask, Phil, Son of Coul if he could shed some light on her whereabouts."
"Of course," Athena said and Thor left towards the command room, while Athena headed towards the lab.
Upon nearing the lab, she picked up a conversation between her dad, Steve, and Dr. Banner.
"Following's not really my style," Tony said.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?," Steve said.
"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?" Tony said, upon hearing that Athena tried to hurry in case she needed to stop them from going at it again.
"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you," Dr. Banner said.
"Just find the cube," Steve said finally leaving the lab.
"Steve I--"
Steve didn't have time to hear Athena out, he had a thought, and decided to act alone. "Excuse me, Athena," Steve said ignoring her and walked away, while Athena stood there shocked.
"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? I'm wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice," Athena heard Tony say.
Irritated, she went inside of the lab, "does it kill kill you to at least be polite to people?"
Dr. Banner looked at both Tony and Athena, who was currently eyeing her dad with despise.
"What, I can't have my own opinion without the captain trying belittle me?"
"All I'm asking is for you to have manners, first Thor and now Steve?"
"Wow, such defiance when it comes to capsicle, it's noteworthy your attraction towards him, I can tell you that, and his towards you."
"Excuse me!" Athena approached Tony dangerously.
Dr. Banner cleared his throat, not wanting to on the sidelines of a father and daughter argument, "I'll leave you two alone--"
"No doctor, you're staying!" Athena said never taking her eyes off Tony, "there needs to be someone here to stop me if my emotions get the best of me."
"You see what I mean, all worked up for an old man--"
"Dad just stop please, I don't want to loose control--"
"Oh the irony," Bruce whispered to himself, but Athena heard it.
"Try to get along, that's all I ask," Athena said and left the lab to find Steve.
Athena jogged throughout the corridors to see if she could spot Steve anywhere, but all she saw was agents. She was about to give up and go to his sleeping quarters, when a familiar red, white, and blue suit appeared in the corner of her eye.
"Steve!" She ran towards him, they were both now in a lonely corridor, "I want to apologize on my dad's behalf, he can be egotistical."
"Don't apologize, I've forgotten about it."
"May I ask what you're doing," Athena said as they stood in front of a storage room.
"Getting answers," Steve said as he tried to leverage a door to get in, "your welcome to follow me," he offered her to go in first.
Athena nodded and went inside, Steve followed closed behind, "what exactly are you looking for?" She whispered.
"We'll see," Steve made a jump to a higher level and Athena was right behind him. They ducked when they heard agents in the distance, until their voices faded, both Athena and Steve continued to explore, until they found crate's with words marked as Phase 2. Steve took the honors of opening one himself and Athena gasped seeing what the crate contained.
"I should've known," Athena said full in disappointment.
"Don't blame yourself, you've only just started working for SHIELD--"
"Steve, they could've told me, I guess my status as an agent isn't high enough to know this sort of classified information!"
"I understand, Athena, I do," Steve took hold of her shoulder, gently trying to comfort her, "but we have to go back with this."
"You're right, lets go."
Together, both Steve and Athena walked backed towards the lab. Steve had a gun in hand, the one they've both discovered together.
"This is not going to be pretty if Fury has been hiding this all along," Athena commented.
"When he came to recruit me, I had told him that the tesseract was better off in the ocean," Steve said.
Athena looked at him briefly, "before my grandfather obtained it, how did it finds its way into the ocean?"
"It fell out of the Red Skull's plane when I fighting him."
"I see." Athena said as they headed to the entrance of the lab.
"What is Phase 2?" Tony questioned looking at the screen. Fury was about to respond, but Athena and Steve entered the lab together.
"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons," Athena said eyeing Fury while Steve set the gun down on the nearby table.
"Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for us," Steve said standing next to Athena.
"Rogers, Starkenios, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that we're making--"
"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony interrupted him showing him the screen where the information of Phase 2 came up.
"I was wrong, Director, the world hasn't changed a bit," Steve said and Thor and Natasha walked into the lab.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha said dodging the question, while moving slowly towards Bruce.
"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," he sassed.
"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha moved in closer.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha eyed the doctor.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. Is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," he said pointing to the screen.
"Because of him," Fury pointed to Thor, and everyone had their eyes on him.
"Me?" Thor said confused.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Fury said.
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor explained.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you? Just look at Starkenios here, 21 years ago, she was dropped off at Stark's doorstep, by who knows who. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled," Fury explained.
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve said.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor said.
"A higher form?" Steve questioned.
"You forced our hand, we had to come up with something." Fury explained.
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony interrupted, "because that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury challenged.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep--"
"Wait, wait. Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony questioned.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury turned to Thor.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust?" Thor questioned.
"Are you guys that naive, SHIELD monitors potential threats," Natasha said.
"Captain America is on threat watch?" Bruce questioned.
"We all are!"
Athena watched the commotion before her and knew something was not right. She had been quiet this whole time and assessed each response the team made, but there was a heavy energy manipulating the lab. She could feel it, this whole entire time. It started as ringing in her ears, causing a small headache. She held her temple as it worsened. It was trying to get to her, but Athena wouldn't let it.
"That's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Bruce said getting worked up.
"You need to step away," Fury said.
Athena could barely focus on the conversations any longer, the headache was growing. She never had headaches before, not at least like the one she was having at the moment.
"---Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Steve said leaving Athena's side to be in front of Tony.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and proud father!" Tony said proudly.
"Ow!" Athena mumbled to herself, her head was pulsing.
Everyone else was too busy arguing with each other to notice Athena's current state. She was looking around the lab, trying to find where the energy was coming from, but at the same time, she picked up something else. A quinjet was surrounding the hellicarrier. Before she could announce her discovery, she stopped short and looked at the scepter that was currently in the hands of Dr. Banner.
"--Dr Banner, put down the sceptre," Steve said.
That was it, Athena was sure of it. The energy radiating from the scepter was causing the fight between the team. It didn't manipulate her because of her shield, but her head still was pulsing.
The beep from the screen made everyone stop, even Athena now was paying attention.
"Got it."
"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce said walking towards the screen to see what it had found.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor questioned.
"I could get there fastest," Tony protested.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it!" Thor said.
"You're not going alone," Steve said stopping Tony.
"You're gonna stop me?" Tony slapped Steve's arm away.
"Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve challenged.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony retorted.
"Put on the suit," Steve said getting close to Tony.
"Stop it!" Athena's voice rose from the room, getting in between Tony and Steve, "the both of you, can't you see--"
"Oh, my god," Bruce said in shock as he looked at the screen.
Everyone was going to start fighting again, but Athena was not having it. Thor wanting the cube to be handled by him so he could take it to Asgard. Tony and Steve kept on going about their fight. She could feel someone, or something and she had to act now.
"Everyone shut up!" Athena's voice made everyone stop what they were doing. They all started at her, "something is coming dammit and you are all fighting like idiots--"
An explosion interrupted her. She could feel herself being thrown back by the explosion and landing on someone. She quickly registered that it was Steve that was under her and her dad next to them. She quickly scrambled off him embarrassed and got on her feet.
"Put on the suit," Steve said urgently this time to Tony.
"Yeah, come Nina," Tony took hold of his daughter and led her and Steve out.
An engine was down due to Barton, he was here to rescue Loki. Director Fury had given Tony orders to fix that engine, Athena and Steve were both assisting him. At the moment, Natasha was running away from the Hulk himself, and Thor had come in to subdue him before he could kill Natasha. Barton had made his way to the bridge command room and took down another engine. This time the hellicarrier was coming down fast. Director Fury gave an order for someone to take down Barton, Natasha volunteered. He also gave Athena new orders, to stop the hellicarrier from coming down.
"Starkenios, we are loosing altitude, fast." Director Fury came in on Athena's earpiece.
"I know I'm on it," Athena said, she then turned to Steve, "stay here with the lever, I'm going to try to keep this thing afloat."
"Be careful," Steve said knowingly.
She nodded and took a few steps back before running off the hellicarrier into the open air. Steve gasped as he saw she went straight down, instead of floating in the air.
"Relax captain, I'm here," Steve heard Athena through his earpiece and in seconds she was floating in the air only a few feet away. He was completely mesmerized by her. She truly was more than just a beautiful face to him, she was a goddess, and so out of his league.
•••
Hi everyone! I hope you guys enjoyed this very long chapter, I had to make it up to you guys for not being active these last couple of months, but with good reason. I have a newborn baby now, plus my toddler who is running around the house so, I'll be updating whenever I can, this chapter did take some time to write, but I've already started the next one that should end with the Avengers before we move on to a closer look at Nina and Steve developing relationship. I want it to be realistic as possible, so hang in there, it's gonna get good! Let me know what you think!
xx 😘