The Infamous Hacker (Natasha Romanoff x OC)

Chapter 9- The Tesseract

The world slowly blinked into focus.

It would go black, then start zooming in again. 

My vision was incredibly fuzzy around the edges, so I could barely see anything other than the bright blue, cloudless sky. 

Hold on, the sky?

I felt around for any broken bones but didn't feel anything broken. Taking that as a good thing, I felt around my head. Like the last time I'd passed out, one of the sides of my head had been smothered with blood, this time the right side. I felt a burning sensation in my forehead, and I detected tiny rocks embedded in my raw skin. I gingerly picked most of them out. The gash on my forehead wasn't too deep, but it still stung, along with my palms. I examined those, too, only to find that they were cut up, the jagged lines of dried blood intercepting my hand's natural creases. I carefully wiped away some of the sharp pebbles and tried to sit up, miserably failing. My stiff back screamed in agony along with my ears, which were pounding as I rolled onto my front, attempting to push myself up through the pain. My back cracked loudly and painfully, but my vertebrae stayed intact as I pushed myself onto my knees. 

I finally managed to take in my surroundings. 

To my left was a machine I didn't recognize. I did recognize its core, though- the Tesseract. 

Upon further investigation, I found Dr. Selvig, not too far away from me. He appeared to be unconscious. 

"Selvig!" I croaked, and fell back on my hands and knees, crawling over to him.

Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't be dead... I prayed as my hands shrieked in pain from underneath me. I managed to reach Selvig, then shook him a bit to see if he'd wake. Blood trickled down the side of his head from his hairline, and he had a slightly bloody nose.

"Selvig!" I rasped, shaking him. "Selvig, wake up!" 

His eyes flickered open, and he groaned, trying to shift around. 

"Oh, thank God," I sighed, relieved. 

"Wha- Bryce?" he asked. "Where are we? Where am I?"

"I- I don't really know yet," I replied, helping him sit up. We then helped each other stand and hobbled over to the machine. 

"What is this?" he asked.

"I don't know, you probably built it," I responded.

"No, no... what's going on?" Selvig pointed out, past the machine. For the first time, I looked out and gasped.

A city was overwhelmed with inhuman figures, giant alien-looking creatures, and purple laser-looking beams. Buildings were being demolished. Skyscrapers falling to the ground, smashing civilians. Cars being flung around as though they were toys. 

I nearly crumpled to my knees at the sight of it. 

"That's not all," Selvig pointed out. "Look up,"

I glanced up to see what the machine was doing- there was a large beam of light shooting into the sky, opening a large, blue, portal-looking thing, which more monsters were flying out of.

"He... he did it," I whispered, shocked and mortified. "He opened up the portal and let in his army,"

This world will be mine, and you will be the cause, Bryce.

Loki's words rang through my ears as I examined the machine. 

"If only I had a computer up here, maybe I could break into it, shut it down-"

"You wouldn't be able to," Selvig told me, examining it as well. "It isn't run by a program,"

"What is it run by, then?"

"It's more of a science cause-and-effect scenario. The materials in the machine are all working collectively, making it so that the only thing you'd need to do to turn it on is power up the Tesseract,"

"Then how do we turn it off?" I asked.

"I- I don't know," he responded.

"Then let's start knowing, doctor!"

He nodded and started typing on the control panel to the machine, seeming concentrated and determined while I examined the portal and the mechanics of the machine.

If only Nico were here, he's an engineering expert... 

I tried to remember all the things Nico had told me about when he was discussing everything he'd learned in college. Nothing important came to mind. Looking back, I really wish that I'd paid him more attention. Then again, it was hard to focus when you had a serious headache, your face was cut up, and your ears were pounding louder than an earthquake.

"Bryce, I need you to override this for me," Selvig said, waving me over. I approached the screen, taking a look at the situation.

I opened up the code with ease and shut down most of the firewalls with mastery, but when it came to getting past the final wall-

"I- I can't," I said, backing away from the screen.

"Why not?" Selvig asked.

"It wouldn't do you any good anyway. See this?" I pointed to the first 13 lines of code. "This is only an "on" switch. You can decrease the power, but you have to manually turn it off,"

Selvig groaned. "Why did I have to make everything so complicated?"

"It's okay, you didn't know what you were doing," I replied, my ears beginning to ring, presumably from the explosions that were going on around us.

"I think I did," Selvig commented, kneeling down and examining the base of the machine. "This thing is protected by an energy shield, so clearly the only way to turn it off is to get through the shield and hit something, but if it's like you said and there's no "off" switch... how are we supposed to get through there?"

"I think it's like I said," I told him. "Maybe if we decrease the power and w-"

"Bryce,"

I stopped, spinning around. Someone had said my name, but I wasn't sure who.

"Bryce,"

"What?" I answered, hoping they could hear me.

"Bryce, are you okay?" Selvig asked. 

"Do you hear that?" I asked in return just as they said my name again. "Somebody talking,"

Selvig strained to hear a voice over the bombs and laser beams, then shook his head.

"I can. Where are you?" I asked, stepping away from the machine.

"BRYCE," the voice said, louder this time. 

"I don't hear anything, Bryce," Selvig said slowly.

"It's getting louder now! How do you not hear it?" I demanded.

"I- I don't know. Are you hallucinating?"

"BRYCE,"

"It's somewhere around here," I said, convinced that Selvig could either not hear it, or it was just talking to me.

My ears started ringing more violently.

"BRYCE,"

As I started to orbit around the roof, the noise got louder as I approached a stairwell. 

"BRYCE," the voice repeated.

"Bryce?" Selvig asked, nervously.

"I'll be right back," I told him, then flung open the door to the stairwell, approaching the sound of the voice.