Devil of Menace

14 - Escape

Thor and I burst into the detention centre as the door to the cell slides open. "NO!" Thor yells gruffly, charging for Loki. Loki crouches as Thor approaches but Thor runs straight through him and into the cell, the door closing behind him. I stand with my gun trained on the Loki that remains stood outside of the cell. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki asks snidely. "He's done that before?" I ask Thor, drawing Loki's attention to me. "Yes, he pretended to be a snake once, it's a long story." Thor explains. "Fitting." I scoff and Loki gasps sarcastically. "You wound me darling, truly." He utters, hand over his heart. "That gun shall do very little if you don't fire it." He taunts. "Sadly we need you alive, that Tesseract is too important." I grumble. "Hmm, perhaps I should get rid of you. You seem awfully perceptive." Loki concludes, taking a step towards me. "Well done you, do you want a prize?" I taunt. Loki smirks, "Depends, is it you?" He asks. I roll my eyes and say, "If you want me, come and get me." 

Loki pauses, licking his lips before smirking once again, "Want you in which way darling? Don't get me wrong, both involved ropes, but it's an important distinction to make before we proceed." He drawls. I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly, "You know what-" I begin but the smashing of Mjolnir against the glass disturbs me. The glass cracks but the action violently shakes the ship. "Don't smash the glass, it triggers the defensive mechanism to drop the cell." I explain, still keeping my eyes and gun trained in Loki. Both him and his guarding soldier stand there cautiously, the soldier's gun trained on me. After a moment Loki walks over the control panel, smiling. "The humans think us immortal." He states, "Should we test that?" All of a sudden the guarding soldier hits the ground as Coulson stands next to me with a ridiculously obnoxious gun. "Move away please." He orders Loki.

Loki steps away from the switch, an action I should find concerning but I'm too consumed in the gun. "What the fuck is that?" I ask incredulously. "You like this?" Phil asks Loki, "We started working on this after you sent The Destroyer." He explains. My mind sparks with the memory of reading of The Destroyer in SHIELD's files. The Destroyer was created to guard Odin's vault but was sent to Earth through the Bifrost Bridge. Coulson and Agent Sitwell attempted to deal with the situation but were attacked. The Destroyer was later confiscated by agents of SHIELD and taken to the SHIELD Headquarters in New York City. I guess this is what they did with it. "Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?" Phil taunts. Before I can blink a loud gasp pierces my ears as the real Loki appears behind Coulson and impales him through the heart. "NO!" Thor yells, rushing to the glass. Coulson drops to the ground and I catch his body, propping him against the wall and applying pressure to the wound. "You son of a bitch." I spit at Loki.

Coulson's breath is uneven and heavy as Loki makes his way back to the control panel. He gives Thor one last look as Thor looks at him hopefully, pleadingly. Loki opens the hatch. The wind swirls deafeningly as Loki hits the button and Thor is dropped out of the Helicarrier, along with the cell. The remaining god looks down with no remorse before closing the hatch and proceeding to leave. I debate whether to follow him but Phil speaks before I can move, "You're gonna lose." He chokes out. Loki spins around, "Am I?" He asks, indulging the man dying in my arms. "It's in your nature." Coulson states. "Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky...where is my disadvantage?" Loki provokes. Coulson swallows, "You lack conviction." He breathes. "I don't think I-" Loki begins before I fire the phase 2 prototype, sending him through the wall behind him. "So that's what it does." Phil laughs before coughing aggressively. "Come on Phil, stay with me." I plead but he looks at me with a sad smile. "No." I whisper.

Fury rushes into the room, finding me cradling a barely breathing Phil. "Sorry, boss. They got rabbited." Coulson jokes. "I'm sorry, my comms are down. I couldn't-" I try to explain but Fury cuts me off, "Don't try and apologize for something you can't control." Nick kneels down in front of Phil. "Just stay awake." He begs, gripping Phil's jaw as his head lulls towards me. "Eyes on me." He demands. "No. I'm clocking out here." Coulson jokingly replies. "Not an option." Fury says as my grip on Phil's shoulder tightens. "It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..." Phil trails off as he looks away, sighing out his last breath as the medical team arrive. I close my eyes as his body goes limp. "Agent Coulson is down." Fury says into the comms. "They're here." He says, presumably in response to a comment about the medical team. A paramedic feels Phil's pulse and looks up shaking his head, "They called it." Nick sighs and clench my fists. "Fuck!" I yell, punching the wall of the jet so hard it leaves a dent. "Every time Nick." I grumble, "Every time there's a war I lose someone. Is it too much to ask for it to stop?" I sigh as Nick reaches out to touch my arm. "War?" He asks. I shake my head. "Pain." I reply solemnly. Nick looks down, "Go clean up." He says softly.

After I shower and get changed, Steve, Tony, and I sit in the briefing room. The two men are out of their suits and Fury stands at the head of the table. Steve's hand squeezes mine as we all sit in a daze. Numb yet pain stricken looks on our faces. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." Nick says, breaking our stupor. He throws Coulson's Captain America trading cards, now heavily blood stained on the table. My hand tightens around Steve's as he leans forward to pick one up. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Nick begins. No-one says anything. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Vik know this, called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Fury explains. Tony stands abruptly and leaves as I release Steve's hand and run my hands over my face.

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion." Says Nick.