The Dragon Princess (Bucky Pairing)

10

Dozens of SHIELD police escort Loki, who is in handcuffs, smiling. As they pass the helicarrier lab, Banner stops working on the Chitauri scepter and looks up. Loki eyes him as he walks, nodding and smiling. Banner rubs his head.

***

Loki is now free from his cuffs and is contained in a large glass cell held by hydraulic rigs. Fury walks up the control panel of the cell.

"In case it's unclear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass." Fury presses a button which opens up a hatch underneath Loki's cell. Loki peers as much as he can from the glass. Without seeing, the sounds of gusting wind would make man shit his pants. Not a god, though. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" Fury closes the hatch. Points at Loki. "Ant." Then points at the button which would drop Loki into the steel trap. "Boot."

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki smirks.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury agrees.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki looks into the camera.

***

The others watch on the monitor Loki getting interrogated. Banner looks at the monitor, intently.

***

"The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki scoffs.

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Fury rants.

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is." Loki mocks.

"Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." Fury smiles and walks off leaving Loki in his glass cell. Loki looks back at the camera, smirking.

***

Steve watches until the monitor goes black. Thor, who didn't even look, just listened, stands there, torn apart. They all just stand there in stunned silence.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner asks, finally.

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

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor explains.

"An army? From outer space?" Steve frowns.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Brooklyn concludes.

"Selvig?" Thor questions.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner offers.

"He's a friend." Thor corrects.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha states.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve decides.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner says.

"That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Zephyr agrees.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor warns. Ashley shoots Thor a glare, ever the protective mother bear.

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha points out.

"He's adopted." Thor adds.

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Banner asks.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony walks in with Coulson. "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive. Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants. Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Tony covers his eye, looks around. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns." Maria sighs. Tony looks around the monitors and places a button size hacking implant under Fury's desk, without anyone noticing.

"Well, that sounds exhausting. 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. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." Tony explains.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria inquires.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony questions.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve sighs.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Banner explains.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony continues.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner finishes.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony beams.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asks Ashley. She offers him a look that says 'I know how you feel'. Tony and Banner shake hands. A glimmer in their eyes shines as the mutual respect for each other shows.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony offers.

"Thanks." Banner looks down.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury walks in.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve offers.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury demands.

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor frowns.

"I do! I understood that reference." Steve beams. Tony rolls his eyes, while Steve looks proud of himself. Ashley pats his shoulder and gives him a smile.

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony suggests.

"Let's play some." Banner agrees. Banner and Tony walk out.