The Soldier's Goddess

Coulson's End?

        "Loki's play is Banner," Kari heard on her ear-piece. Natasha's voice sounded a little shaken, but otherwise determined. Kari turned to face Bruce, who was engrossed in the gamma trace, while Tony sat on the desk, his legs crossed, popping blueberries into his mouth. She had to admit, it was pretty entertaining watching him see how high he could chuck one and catch it in his mouth. A bit like watching a dog chase it's tail really.

        "Stark, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Fury stormed in.

        "Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing," Tony retorted.

        "You're supposed to be tracing the Tesseract."

        "We are," said Bruce. "That computer over there is looking now, and will be able to tell us when it can find within half a mile raduis."

        "What's Phase Two?" asked Tony. Bruce turned the screen round for Fury to see.

        "Weapons." Steve slammed a large gun down on the table. No one had seen him come in. "Sorry Stark, the computer was going a little slow for me." Fury hung his head and sighed.

        "Banner, do you maybe want to think about removing yourself from this all?" Natasha walked into the room. Bruce turned to face her.

        "I was pretty well removed from it all thankyou, I was in Calcutta," he replied, angrily. Thor walked over to sit with Kari, who was just sat watching this all, unsure of what she should do or say. She had never Steve so angry before.

        "Yes, ok, we were making weapon's," cried Fury, flinging his hands in the air, frustrated at it all.  Kari stood up to take a closer look at what Steve had brought in. It looked familiar. It looked like... no it couldn't be. But then after everything that had happened the last couple of days, she doesn't know why she was even surprised in the first place. It looked like S.H.I.E.L.D. had truly studied the Destroyer's technology and adapated it. Great, just what everyone needed right now. All hell broke loose. Kari turned to see Steve and Tony arguing like school children, Thor was staggering around, commenting on how tiny and petty these humans were, Natasha and Bruce were yelling at each other... She couldn't take it anymore.

        "Oh for the love of... SHUT UP, THE LOT OF YOU," she yelled. They all turned to look at her. Steve had been egging Tony on to put his suit on, they would "go a few rounds", and he looked at her in half surprise, half guilt. "Would you all just look at yourselves, bloody hell." Fury opened his mouth to say something, when he slowly turned round to face Bruce, and gently opened the latch to his gun. Natasha did the same.

        "Bruce, do you think you could put that down now?" Natasha asked him softly, but firmly. Kari looked and he was holding Loki's sceptre. 

        "How did...?" he asked himself, frowning. Nobody had a chance to find out why or how though, because a huge explsion caused the ceiling to cave in, equipment to explode and the floor to collapse. Kari managed to jump out of the way just in time, but Natasha and Bruce weren't so lucky. Natasha managed to get over the earpieces that the Hulk had emerged, so Thor ran off to help her, while Kari ran off with Fury to the Control Room. Steve and Tony went the other way, to do something about the broken engine.

        "Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on," demanded Fury as he walked in. Before anyone could answer, Agent Maria Hill, who was second in command to Fury, yelled out.

        "Grenade!" Kari reacted too slowly and the explosion threw her across the room. As she sat up, dazed, she saw Agent Barton, Clint, in a narrow slit above the door, aiming his bow. The arrow connected with one of the computers and fried the electrics. She went to take off after him, but some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, who Clint had hijacked for the mission, came running in, shooting. Fury shot back, but they weren't deterred. Kari wondered what she could use to defend herself, and as she looked around, she saw a long metal pole that had come apart in the explosion. Excellent, she thought, grinning to herself. She may not have been trained to use a gun, but she was trained in the art of combat on Asgard (ok, not as well as her sister, but she was good enough). The first bullet missed completely, but the second just grazed past her leg. A bullet graze was nothing compared to what happened that time on Nidavellir, but she wasn't going to think about that right now. She side flipped over the monitors to the right of her and landed feet first, crouching, holding the pole in front of her. The guy who crept up behind her didn't even see it coming. She swung it round behind her, knocking him out cold; the same as the next two who tried to attack her. She had a sudden thought. Not a good one either.

        "Loki," she muttered to herself, running towards the god's glass cage. She came up against a few more men on the way there, getting a gash across her forehead in the process, but she managed to make it there.

        "NO!" she screamed, stopping dad in her tracks. Thor was in the prison, Loki by the controls, Phil was pointing one of the Phase Two weapons at him.

        "Well isn't this just grand," soothed Loki. "My brother about to meet his death, my former love defending those very humans who deserve to be conquered, and a mortal threatening me. This is something I'll remember for a long time." He turned to press the button, presumably to release Thor.

        "Don't," said Phil, raising the weapon. It began to power up. Loki held his hands above his head and stepped away from the console. "I don't know quite what this does yet, but I'm happy to try and find out." It was whirring into action when Loki appeared behind Phil by magic and stabbed him from behind with the sceptre. The previous image of him stood in front of them all faded away.

        "YOU BASTARD!" she screamed at him, rooted to the spot, eyes wide in horror.

        "Well, this has been fun," he said, sauntering back to the console and pressing the button without a second thought. The cage disappeared out of the base of the ship.

        "THOR!" She turned back to face Loki, aiming the pole at him.

        "Ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned, with menace glowing in his eyes. He opened his mouth to continue blabbering on about something, when he was blasted backwards.

        "Oh so that's what it does," murmured Phil, slouching down against the wall. Kari ran over to him, tears in her eyes.

        "Phil no, no you can't go. Come on, keep talking to me. Please." Fury came running over and took over from her as she flung herself back against the wall and started sobbing. Phil was dead, Thor was presumed dead, Bruce could be anywhere, and she had no idea what was going on with the others right now. She just wanted Steve right now. For him to wrap his arms round her and tell her everything would be ok. Except she didn't know where he was.

        "Barton's safe." Natasha's voice in her ear-piece made her look up. At least he was back. A medic ran over to tend to Kari's wounds, and she just sat there, allowing them to do what they needed to. Not making a fuss. She was just too numb right now. What would happen now? Would she see Steve again?