Athena Erskine was beautiful and bold. A female scientist in a world of men. Athena lived every day outnumbered but not outsmarted. Athena had to force her way into every room. So that she could demonstrate how much brighter, she is than all the men...
"If you don't step forward. You'll stay in the same place"
Nora Roberts
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Athena was sitting on the chair next to Steve's. Their chairs pulled so close together that their legs were pressed up against each other. Steve's hand on her knee.
"In case it's unclear." Fury's voice warned as it drifted through the microphone. "You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass." Fury must have pressed a button as there was a sudden whirring of air being sucked through a hole. Athena guessed Fury had opened the hatch below Loki's cell.
Loki calmly walked over and peered through the glass. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" Fury demanded. Closing the hatch, Fury shouted, "Ant. Boot."
Athena watched as a wide smirk overtook Loki's face, "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."
"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury told Loki, trying to diminish the god's status.
"Oh, I've heard," Loki agreed. Turning around, Loki looked straight at the camera. Athena felt as if he was somehow looking right throw and at all of them. Athena knew it was impossible, but it was unnerving. Loki then continued to talk to them. "The mindless beast," Loki taunted, "makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I?" Nick Fury demanded. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Ooh. It burns you to come so close," Loki taunted, "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."
"Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." Athena could hear the teasing tone Fury's voice had taken on. They watched as Loki turned, smirking at the camera before it went black.
"They won't actually kill him, will they?" Asked the distressed blond woman that Thor had arrived with. Athena now knew her to be Saklauss, Loki's partner.
"That's as long as he doesn't do anything he isn't meant to do," Maria Hill told the women.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner mumbled sarcastically.
"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve commented. Looking up from where the screen had been, he looking at the Asgardians, "So, Thor, Saklauss, what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri," Saklauss told them, "they're not of Asgardian."
"Or any world known," Thor added, "he means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
