INT. HELICARRIER PORT SIDE - DAY
Steve, Frank and Tony listened in on the conversation.
"They called it," Fury said.
INT. HELICARRIER BRIDGE - LATER
Fury gathered Tony, Frank and Steve back into the briefing room; everyone had a look as if in a daze. A look of numb shock was on their devastated faces.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury said. "Guess he never did get you two to sign them." Fury threw Coulson's Captain America and Lieutenant Liberty trading cards on the table toward Steve and Frank. Steve and Frank picked up the bloodstained cards.
Fury continued. "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." He paused a beat. "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 knows 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." Tony got up and walked off, not wanting to hear any more. "Well, it's an old-fashioned notion."
EXT. MEADOW
Thor walked out far into the meadow. He looked down to see Mjölnir.
INT. ABANDONED BUILDING
Bruce woke up, in human form. He looked around and saw he was in a pile of rubble and looked up at the open ceiling he crashed in. He was completely naked. A security guard stood there, amazed.
"You fell out of the sky," the security guard said.
Bruce, coming to, asked, "Did I hurt anybody?"
"There's nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though."
"Lucky."
"Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell."
"You saw?"
"The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude. Here..." He threw Bruce a pair of big pants. Bruce pulled on his pants. "I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella."
"Thank you."
"Are you an alien?"
"What?"
"From outer space, an alien?"
"No."
"Well then, son, you've got a condition."
INT. HELICARRIER MEDICAL ROOM
Clint was strapped down. Natasha watched over him as he tried to shake off Loki's mind control.
"Clint, you're gonna be all right," Natasha told him.
"You know that?" Clint asked. "Is that what you know? I got... I gotta go in though. I gotta flush him out."
"We don't have that long, it's gonna take time."
"I don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and send something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"
"You know that I do."
"Why am I back? How did you get him out?"
"Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head."
YOU ARE READING
It's Been a Long, Long Time
ActionFranklin, Frank, Allen always felt the need to look out for a friend of his. But when his friend volunteers to serve, Frank is the first to offer himself as well, much to what he imagines the chagrin of a mutual friend's. Little does he know that h...