The Avengers x Y/N Barton

Pt. 4

All the buzz on the bridge has always been too much for you, but you needed more space and tech to initiate facial recognition program that would have an effect all over the world. Where Clint's, Erik's or Loki's face is, the Tesseract is as well. At least you hope.

"How come you get hang of it all?" Captain Rogers observes number of different panels in front of you.

You offer him free chair next to yours. "Take a seat, Captain, I'll show you," smile plasters on your face.

"Oh, please call me Steve," he pulls the chair closer to make himself comfortable and apologizes to agent Sitwell when he accidentally kicks him in the process.

You start tracing your fingers across one of the screens. "I'm sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops... If it's connected to a satellite, it's like eyes and ears for me."

"Is it legal?"

"I think of it more like a gray area," you scratch your neck, uncertain of his reaction. A little white lie never harmed nobody.

"That's acceptable," he chuckles softly.

Your pleasant bonding chat comes to a standstill when electronic beeping together with red flashing indicator attracts your senses.

"We got a hit. A 67% match. Wait, cross-check 79%!" Your heart starts racing as you read Loki's location. "Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse," you point on the coordinates.

"Captain," Fury tears Steve's attention away from you. "You're up."

----

Bruce turns on one of the machines and his lips curl upwards as he looks around and admires your equipment. "This is a huge upgrade from what we were operating with before, back in the day."

"But without this," you smack your lips and wave your notebook in the air, "it's all really just a pricey decoration."

Out of the corner of your eye, you notice something in the corridor. Heavily-armed guards are escorting Loki past your lab. Red tints your vision when he casts his evil eyes on Bruce and smirks viciously.

His presence means Natasha and Steve are back. You want to run to talk to them but the fear of possible bad news glues you to the floor.

"Hey," Bruce jolts you back to attention, "they want us in a briefing room." Your thoughts were so loud you didn't hear the announcement.

Clint and Erik weren't found, but your hopes rise as you see the team has grown with a new member – Thor.

The security cameras are streaming Loki's imprisonment in the detachable cell meant for someone else. His conversation with Fury creates goosebumps on your body. He's more dangerous than you first thought.

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor answers Steve's question of what Loki's play is. "They're not of Asgard, nor any world known."

Every fibre, every atom of your existence is screaming that what isn't scientifically based and verified, doesn't exist. And yet you're experiencing it firsthand.

Alien army led by psychopathic Norse god wants to start a war against people to win him the Earth supposedly in return for the Tesseract. Steve was right when he told Fury it should have been left in the ocean.

Thor's statement sparks a discussion about ongoing ballgame. As far as SHIELD knows, no aliens were detected on the Earth yet. That means they must be waiting somewhere in outer space. In order to bring them, Loki has to build a portal similar to the one opened in your lab. But that one wasn't stable, so he needs to stabilize it.

"That's why he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor pinches his eyebrows in surprise of hearing Erik's name in Bruce's deduction.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha's sympathetic look aims you, "along with one of ours, agent Barton."

You didn't want anyone else to know you have a very personal interest in all this. You managed to change the topic when Bruce asked you how Clint was doing. But now they're waiting for clarification.

"Clint's my brother," you elaborate on the identical last names.

"What exactly happened?" Thor's aura is very different from Loki's, almost as if they weren't even related.

"We were running some experiments when one day the Cube activated on its own. Long story short, Loki tried to subdue my will but Clint saved me. The greasy-haired son of a bitch then took Erik."

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he's my brother."

Thor's warning doesn't deter you from pointing out harsh reality. "He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted." So much for their resemblance.

Steve asks you to put your expertise into action, so you excuse yourself and come into jog through the hallway towards lab.

Deep-dove in your thoughts, you don't pay attention to where your feet are taking you, resulting in running into male individual whose cologne is an atrocity against olfactory cells.

"Oh, sorry, my bad," you apologize before turning to face him.

"Yes, yours. But since you're such a pretty flower, a cup of coffee will make it up. Bring it to me in the briefing room, will you?" Tony Stark gives you one more reason to not to want to work with him, not to mention he obviously doesn't remember you.

Pressing your hand on your mouth, you keep yourself from bursting into juicy oaths. His advent means your team is finally complete.

"When did you become an expert for thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria Hill folds her arms across her chest when she hears Stark interpreting quotes from your studies.

"Last night." His haughty demeanor makes Natasha roll her eyes.

"The packet, doctor Barton's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" It looks like he expects an applause. "Where's doctor, anyway? I'm excited to meet him in person."

"You sent me for a drink, don't you remember?" You walk in, take a seat next to Natasha and open your notebook.

Stark's jaw drops on the floor and he launches into apologies. "I'm so sorry, doctor, my bad."

"Yes, yours. But a cup of coffee will make it up," you pay his disrespectful remark back, "Bring it to me later to my lab."