The Seventh Avenger

Lifelong Kitchen Duty

When we got back to S.H.I.E.L.D, we had everyone with us, Thor and Loki included. We-minus Tony Stark- walked into the central room, and took seats at the main glass table. I took the seat furthest away from everyone else, as I was still a bit sour over being told off like a little kid by Natasha. On small rectangular screens on the table in front of each seat, we watched Fury talking with Loki. It was actually kinda amusing. And let's just say... shot were fired on this day.

"He really grows on ya, doesn't he?" Bruce asked sarcastically.

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

Thor turned around to face us and answered, "He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. He will win them the earth, and in return, I suspect Loki will get the Tesseract."

"An army. From outer space." I deadpanned in disbelief. Everyone said a few things, and Dr. Banner made a joking comment about Loki.

"Have care how you speak. Loki may be beyond reason, but he is of Asguard. And he is my brother." Thor said, defending his younger sibling.

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha retorted.

"... He's adopted"

I struggled to contain a smirk that threatened to tug at the corner of my mouth.

"What did they need the iridium for?" Bruce asked.

Stark walked in then with Phil, and we answered at the same time.

"It's a stabilising agent."

Tony walked passed me, looking at me with his eyebrows raised.

"What? I'm smarter than I seem." I replied, one eyebrow raised. "It means that the portal won't collapse in on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. It also means that the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants." I continued.

Tony raised his eyebrows at me, and turned to Thor as he walked past him, and patted him on the arm. "No hard feelings, point break, you gotta mean swing. And, you, kiddo" He pointed in my direction. "are one-hundred percent correct." He said, pointing at me as he walked over to Fury's controls. "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Ha, busted! Tony covered one eye with his hand and glanced around the bridge. "How does Fury even see these things?" He asks Maria.

"He turns." Maria answered, clearly not amused by Starks childish antics.

"Sounds exhausting."

Tony bent down and reached under Fury's controls, placing something under the screens on the left hand side. I frowned, but didn't say anything, curious of what he was gonna do. "But to expand on what the little agent over there said, the rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of a high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"I have a name, douchey. It's Cassidy."

"When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked, cutting off Stark before we got into an actual argument.

"Last night." Tony smirked. I laughed a little but stopped as soon as I saw the death stare Maria was giving me. "The packet. Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one that did the reading?"

"I actually did read them, but only out of boredom. There's not really much to do here other than train." I said with a shrug, leaning back in the leather chair I was sat in.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of energy source?" Steve asked us, cutting off Stark before he started another sentence.

"He'd have to heat the cube to one hundred and twenty kelvin just to break the Coolum barrier." Bruce stated.