Thanos' Daughter

Chapter 6

I returned to the underground hideout to find it in what I can only describe as organized chaos. There were people running in every direction, but they seemed to know where they needed to go. Since I'd been gone, the number of soldiers had multiplied.

I wondered how long I'd been gone for. The Other wouldn't have taken me away from Loki for too long. At least I hoped he wouldn't.

I walked into the central area of the hideout. This was where the Tesseract was being held. The cube was in a metal and plastic clear box. I realized there had been a method to Loki's madness when we'd fought the people who we took the Tesseract from.

Loki had taken the minds of every scientist from that facility. I was impressed. Without those scientists we wouldn't have had any idea of what to do with the Tesseract, or even how to keep it contained.

A muffled voice called out from inside the Tesseract's temporary house. "Just put them over there."

I noticed that the head scientist, the one who had recognized Loki, was inside the container.

He spoke to the man outside of the box. "Where did you find all of the people?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. had got plenty of enemies, Selvig." Clint seemed distracted by something in his hands. "Is this the stuff you need?" He held up a portable computer for the doctor to look over.

"Yes, iridium. Interesting fact, it's found in meteorites. It forms antiprotons."

Now wonder everyone says English is a confusing language to learn, what with all of their made up sounding words.

"It's hard to find, much less to use." Doctor Selvig said.

I could see him working with a piece of the Tesseract casing, which put me on edge. He acted so calm, as if he wasn't handling materials that could kill him and everyone else around in a twenty mile radius. He was taking this situation too lightly for my liking.

"Especially if S.H.I.E.L.D. knows we need it." Barton said.

I wouldn't say that I liked Barton, but I definitely respected him. He and I shared some common ideas about how things should be done. That could have something to do with the fact that we both had military backgrounds. If he wasn't a human I'd have almost considered becoming acquaintances with him.

"Well I didn't know," Selvig sounded like he was pleased he hadn't known before.

I supposed it was better if S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know what we needed to get, but I didn't like Selvig's attitude. He was too happy about this whole thing. It made me feel uncomfortable

"Hey," Selvig moved closer to the containment entrance. "The Tesseract has shown me so much. Way more than I'd ever thought possible. It's more than knowledge. It's the truth of the universe."

I turned to see who Selvig was talking to. Loki waltzed into the room looking like the smug bastard he was.

Loki smirked. "I know. What did it show you, Agent Barton?" Loki turned to look at the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

Barton faced him. "My next target."

I stared in shock at Barton's eyes. They were an unearthly blue. The blue appeared to be bleeding out into the whites of his bloodshot eyes. The pupil was barely noticeably in the sea of blue. The skin around his eyes and nose was red. If he looked that bad, he must have been fighting very hard to release himself from the scepter's control.

"Tell me what you need," Loki's cold voice pulled me away from my horror at Barton's condition.

"I'll need a distraction." He crossed to a small black case and pulled out the handle of a bow. He flicked it forward and the limbs sprang outward. "And an eyeball."