Silver crouched beside me, her skin still glowing faintly from teleporting here. Her brow creased as she studied the scene ahead, shaken by what she saw. I couldn't blame her. HYDRA had always advised us against using our powers amongst SHIELD officials, the reason we had neglected them on the Lemurian, but I figured this particular situation called for it.
One of the man's blasts ricocheted off the steel platform and struck our table. My head smacked against the concrete and I struggled to stay conscious as my body slid weakly to the floor. Disorientated, I grabbed hold of Silver who was in just as much of a daze as I was.
"Get us out."
I mumbled, scrambling to my knees. Thankfully, the man- the alien, maybe, was still too distracted by battle to notice us. The air spiked with an electric charge and I shut my eyes, feeling the nausea rise as Silver transported us away. With a small pop we arrived on Barton's balcony and I promptly fell to my knees, dragging Silver down with me.
"What is this?"
I asked, grasping hold of a railing and peering over the edge. My head spun and I closed my eyes for a second, pressing my forehead against the cold metal.
"I'm sorry, I was looking at it and I wasn't thinking and-"
"It's fine," I interrupted her, hoping I was right, "We're safe, for now."
Below us, Barton stood quietly at attention behind the man with the sceptre, his eyes glazed over with some form of mind control. I'd heard of a guy who could do something similar once, a British bloke with a funny name. Something stupid like murdercorpse.
"Please don't." The man said- no, demanded from Fury, drawing me back to the conversation, "I still need that." I noticed the black briefcase half-hidden beneath the director's trench-coat.
The Tesseract.
"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury called over his shoulder, his back turned towards the man in a futile attempt at rebellion.
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else." He paused, smiling in a way that I'm sure would have been charming had he not just killed several people, "I am Loki, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose-"
"Loki?" Selvig cut in, raising himself off the floor where he had been inspecting another scientist's wounds, "Brother of Thor?"
The Norse God. Impossible.
Loki looked away in annoyance, and I held my breath, worried another unnecessary death would follow. His grip tightened on the sceptre but he didn't respond.
"We have no quarrel with your people."
Fury raised a hand to signal peace.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
"You got any popcorn?" Silver joked breathlessly and I almost laughed.
"You planning to step on us?" Fury questioned and Loki simply advanced, his every movement menacing.
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."
The words dripped off his tongue like poison from a snake's fangs, instilling a sense of fear within my soul that I couldn't yet understand.
"Free from what?"
"Freedom. Freedom is life's greatest lie. Once you accept that, in your heart." He spun around and placed the tip of his sceptre on Selvig's chest, taking us all by surprise. I leant forwards in wonder, "You will know peace."
So that's how he controlled them.
The Tesseract cloud continued to brew behind Fury, throbbing warningly every few seconds. I bit my lip, hoping Silver was well enough to teleport again. The time it took her to recharge her powers was frustrating but they'd never failed to save us. Plus, anything was better than spending hours at border security.
"Yeah, you say peace. I kinda think you mean the other thing."
"Sir, director Fury is stalling." Barton announced, "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us," He stopped pacing and exchanged a look with the director, "He means to bury us."
"Like the Pharaohs of old." Fury confirmed, a twinkle in his eye.
"He's right." Selvig added, studying one of the undamaged computer screens, "The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
"Well then."
Loki nodded in Barton's direction and, without a hint of hesitation, the agent drew his gun and fired at the director he'd risked his life to protect barely a few minutes ago.
It was at that moment that the railing I was leaning on gave way, sending me free-falling several metres where a lab table broke my fall.
I groaned with the sickening realization that all eyes were now on me, "Hey."
My comment did nothing to buy me time and Barton aimed his pistol in my direction now. I rolled off the table as Silver called out to distract Loki, feeling my veins ignite with Adrenalin. She zip-wired down, landing far more gracefully than I had and ducking behind a corner to avoid the oncoming bullets.
"Silver!" I yelled, bolting towards her using the tables as cover.
"Sir, we have to go." Barton said, his weapon still trained on me.
Silver wrapped her arms around me and I felt the familiar jostle of teleportation but at the last possible second, one of Loki's new henchmen grabbed hold of my vest. Before I could shove him off, a halo of white light surrounded us and in the blink of an eye we were gone.
Our new friend from Asgard wasn't the only one with a trick up his sleeve.