Little Avenger

4a

"In case it's unclear..." Fury starts over the speakers. "You try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass..."

A hole opens beneath Lokis cell and Fury turns to him as he looks over the edge.

"30,000 feet!" Fury states. "Straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

He closes the hole back up and motions to Loki.

"Ant." He turns to the controls. "Boot."

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

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." Loki turns to the camera. "A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man."

Nat looks up at Bruce from where she's sitting at one of the computers and he gives her a look before they both turn back to the computers.

"How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you."

"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."

"It burns you to have come so close." Loki breathes a smirk. "To have the tesseract, have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all man kind to share. And then, to be reminded what real power is."

Fury chuckles and turns around, starting to walk away.

"Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something."

Fury walks out of the room and Loki walks closer to the camera, staring right at us until, the screens go black.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner jokes.

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

"He has an army called the Chitari. They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army from outer space." Steve's done with it all.

"So, he's building another portal?" Banner guesses. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asks.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Nat states.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him." Steve states. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner denies. "That guys brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor moves forward. "Loki is beyond reason but, he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"He killed 80 people in two days." Nat objects.

"He's adopted." Thor shrugs, making me smile.

Yeah, I'm just sitting here. Just listening to the adults talk, not having a clue of half the shit they're saying but, definitely being interested.

"I think it's about the mechanics." Bruce states. "Iridium... What do they need iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony walks in and I instantly get excited. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD. Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." He walks off to the bridge and starts looking around. "Uh-Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails. The man is playing Galaga."

He points and Steve confusedly looks at us while I just smile at Tony.

"He thought we wouldn't notice but, we did." Tony continues as he puts his hand to his eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." The tall woman, who I now know is Maria Hill, states.

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw material, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria smirks.

"Last night. The packet, Selvigs notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one doing the reading?" He throws his hands out as he walks forward.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asks.

"He would have to heat the cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce states.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony objects.

"Well, he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks english." Tony motions to Banner and they start saying stuff.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve jokes.

"No." I scoff.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury walks in. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I'd start with that stick of his." Steve says. "It may be magical but, it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"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."

"Monkeys?" Thor asks. "I do not understand."

"I do." Steve quickly points. "I understood that reference."

"Me too." I smile.

"Shall we play, Dr?" Tony asks Banner.

"This way, sir."