Devil of Menace

8 - Cell

Loki stands alone in a reinforced cell held by hydraulic rigs as Fury walks up to its control panel. "In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass." Fury begins before pressing a button that opens a hatch. Loki looks as best he can without falling. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" Fury demands. He points at Loki, "Ant." Then points at the button, "Boot." Loki simply smirks slyly, "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." He suggests. Nick glares, "Built for something a lot stronger than you." Loki nods, "Oh, I've heard."

The voices fill the briefing room as Nat, Steve, Banner, Maria, Thor, and I watch the interrogation. Banner watches the monitor with a particular intensity, makes sense seeing as that cage is built for him. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki taunts Nick. "How desperate am I?" Nick repeats, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Fury explains. Loki scrunches his face and winces, "Ooh." He clicks his teeth, "It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is." Nick scoffs and smiles, "Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." He says before walking away, leaving Loki smirking.

"Does he ever stop smirking?" I ask Thor. "When he loses." Thor utters causing me to sigh deeply. Thor remains stood where he was, he didn't watch the interrogation and instead listened to the whole thing. The confliction is evident on his features. Steve sits with his chin in his hands, watching the screen until it goes black. We all remain in silence until Banner speaks, "He really grows on you doesn't he?" I shake my head and sigh, "Yup." Steve sits back in his chair, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" He asks. Thor snaps out of his stupor and turns Steve, arms crossed. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or 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 divulges. Steve's face hardens, "An army? From outer space?" He clarifies and Thor tilts his head as if to say, 'Yeah that's what I said, duh.'

"So he's building another portal." Banner reaches a conclusion. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." I add. Thor turns to us, "Selvig?" He asks. "He's an astrophysicist." Banner explains. "He's a friend." Thor counters. "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha explains. "I wanna know why Loki let us take him." I say, "He was all-too-happy to watch you and Tony fight with no thought of running. That's not typical criminal behaviour." I mention. "And he's not leading an army from here." Steve states. "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Banner exasperates. Thor straightens, "Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Natasha quirks an eyebrow, "He killed 80 people in two days." She says. Thor's shoulders deflate, "He's adopted." Banner changes the subject, "I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need iridium for?" He asks, thoughts running through his mind a mile a minute.

"It's a stabilizing agent." A voice explains, a voice I know to be Tony Stark. He walks into the room, Coulson by his side. Looking to Coulson he says, "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive." Steve looks at me with furrowed brows and I hold my hands up, shaking my head. Tony turns back to us, "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Noticing Thor in the corner, he taps his pen on his armoured chest, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." Tony again bounces back to us and begins talking about the iridium, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Finally he turns to the crew, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA!" He yells, pointing to an agent. "Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He then proceeds to cover his eye and look around before asking, "How does Fury do this?"

I bury my head in my hands at the man's lack of attention span and sigh like an embarrassed parent. Maria answers his question, "He turns." Tony scans the monitors before I see him place a button sized hacking implant under the desk, I raise an eyebrow at him disapprovingly. He scratches the side of his nose in response, his signal for me to trust him. "Well that sounds exhausting." He says in response to Maria. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." Tony explains. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" I ask curiously. "Last night," Tony replies nonchalantly, " The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" He asks sarcastically.

Steve clears his throat, clearly irked by Tony's eccentricity, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" He asks. Banner jumps in, "He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." He explains. Tony points his pen at Banner this time, "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." I look up at the two scientists, "Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." I mention. Tony looks at me smiling, "I knew you listened to me, it's good to finally find someone who speaks English." He says, directing that last part to Banner. Steve looks around incredulously, "Is that what just happened?" Natasha shrugs in response. Tony and Banner shake his hands, respect between the two evident in their eyes. "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Bruce looks down shyly at the initial compliment and then nods at the mention of his alter-ego, "Thanks." He utters. Fury walks into the room after the exchange and says, "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury explains to Tony. "Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve mentions. I sigh, "No. The sceptre isn't HYDRA, it can't be." Steve turns to me, "How?" I don't think before saying, "After the war HYDRA wasn't nearly as interested in the Tesseract as other projects. I never saw anything to do with that sceptre." I freeze after the words spill out and everyone but Thor looks at me in confusion. Steve in particular. I look to Fury and he changes the subject without questioning what I just said despite his own confusion, "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor looks confused, "Monkeys? I do not understand." Steve perks up, "I do! I understood that reference." Nat and I laugh as Tony rolls his eyes and Steve looks proud of himself. Tony turns to Banner, "Shall we play doctor?" Banner nods, "Let's play some." He agrees and the two leave the room.

As they do the agent playing Galaga returns to his game.