Lies of Silver, Heart of Gold ~§~ Bucky Barnes

-003-

Dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents escort Loki, who is in handcuffs, smiling. As they pass the helicarrier lab, Bruce stops examining Loki's scepter and looks up. Loki eyes him as he walks, nodding and smiling. Only a minute or so later, Loki is free from his cuffs and is contained in a large glass cell held by hydraulic rigs. Fury walks up the control panel of the cell.

"In case it's unclear," he explains, "if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass..."
Fury presses a button which opens up a hatch underneath the cell. Loki looks to see as much as he can from inside the glass structure. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" He closes the hatch and points at Loki. "Ant," he pauses and points at the button which would drop Loki into the steel trap. "Boot."

"It's an impressive cage," Loki compliments. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you," the director admits.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki stops and looks into the camera. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" he asks.

"How desperate am I?" Fury 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."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what?" Loki asks. "A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

Fury smirks. "Well, you let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something." Fury walks off leaving Loki in his glass cell. Loki looks back at the camera, smirking. Steve watches until the monitor goes black. Thor, who doesn't even glance at the screen, just stands there and listens, heartbroken at his brother's heartlessness. The whole group stays there in stunned silence.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asks.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve answers. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known," he explains. "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

Steve is skeptical. "An army? From outer space?"

"So he's building another portal," Bruce deduces. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asks, confused.

Bruce explains, "He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend," Thor corrects.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours and Selvig's protégé," Natasha says.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve admits. "He's not leading an army from here."

"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," Bruce states.

"Have care how you speak," Thor warns. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha informs.

"He's adopted."

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asks.

Tony walks in with Phil Coulson and answers Bruce's question. "It's a stabilizing agent." He turns to Coulson. "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive." He gestures back to the group. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." He turns to Thor. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." He turns to the rest of the team and goes back to the iridium. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He starts speaking to the crew. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He covers his left eye with his hand and looks at the surrounding monitors. "How does Fury do this?" he asks.