Fire and Ice

•4•

"How we looking over there, Selvig?" Kate asks, her voice tense as she desperately messes with some equipment. Selvig knows more about this than her — which is why he's with her in one of SHIELD's basements — even after her discussions with Jane in the past year. Fury upped Kate's clearance one more level, finally to match Clint and Nat, to work on this project.

The Tesseract.

Everything was going fine up until now.

"Her energy levels keep climbing," Selvig replies.

Kate pauses a moment. "Her?"

"I can't stop it. I turned everything off, but she turned it back on."

"So, we really are gonna die. Great," Kate mutters, still trying anyway even though the thing's probably going to explode. They're evacuating the base now, save the two of them, the researchers, Clint, Coulson, and Fury and Maria Hill, who just arrived. Hill, however, doesn't enter the lab with Fury.

"Talk to me, doctors," he says, walking towards Selvig and Kate.

"Director," Selvig says, while Kate says nothing. They lead him around the lab, first to the Tesseract itself, contained in a circular set up that takes readings, placed in front of a track leading to a platform — the future portal to outer space. It's no Bifrost, but it's still cool.

Or it would be if they weren't about to die.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asks.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig replies.

Fury's lips turn down at the corners, making him look more irritable and stern than usual. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

Selvig shakes his head. "No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's... behaving."

"I assume you pulled the plug." He glances at Kate as he says it.

She sighs as they head for the equipment. "Yep."

"She's an energy source," Selvig explains. "We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level..."

"I will add that I don't approve of this personification of the Tesseract," Kate says. While the Tesseract does seem to have a mind of its own, it's just generally uncomfortable. And why her? It feels much more like a dude to Kate.

Fury sends her a glare. "Not the time, Kate."

She shrugs. "Well, if we're going to die, I wanted to be sure you-"

"We prepared for this," he interrupts.

"But our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation," Selvig answers.

"That can be harmful," Fury says, and Kate grimaces, knowing he's referring to Dr. Bruce Banner and his Hyde-like pal. "Where's Barton?"

Kate gestures to the high ceiling. "Up in his nest, as usual."

Fury speaks into his radio. "Agent Barton, report." Behind them, Clint lowers himself to the floor via rope, sliding down it like a fire pole. He hurries over to them, and Fury says, "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."

"Well, I see better from a distance," Clint says as they move away, but Kate, messing with the equipment, can still hear them.

"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asks.

Kate's attention is taken away by Dave. "Dr. Carson, it's spiking again."

She hurries over to him, looking at the readings. "Dave... this is not good."