Unexpected

A Hard Night

My whole body went cold in an instant. "Y-you found it?"

"Iridium! It works perfectly!" He took me by the hand and energetically pulled me to his computers, showing me the composition of the substance called iridium, "I should have looked at it before as it plays such a good job as a stabilizer, which is what I needed, but my head was so foggy that I couldn't see it! That nap today that you suggested, I think that did the trick and I found that iridium fits the chemical composition I needed perfectly!"

"Th-that's... great, Doctor." I replied in shock, looking over at the glowing cube from the corner of my eye. It looked absolutely malicious now that I knew its portal opening potential was that much closer to being accomplished and I could feel that terrible energy all the more acutely.

"It is, isn't it?" He sighed and shook his head, "The only problem is that it's a rare metal. I've no idea where one would find it. That's why I sent someone to alert Agent Barton and Master Loki. They'd want to know the discovery and could probably find it. They found all these workers somehow, so a rare metal shouldn't be too hard for them to find."

I nodded numbly and set the tray down on one of the messy tables, taking a deep breath to steady myself as I plopped down into an office chair as Eric went on, rattling off scientific whatnot to me and setting the other scientists to work. I barely understood what Selvig was talking about before, but now I wasn't even trying to listen. I just felt cold and numb from my brain to my body. They'd found what they needed. The invasion, war, or whatever it was supposed to be that had once seemed so far away was now imminent! I felt positively sick. Only when Barton arrived to talk with Selvig did I pull myself together, or tried to anyways, sitting up straight and trying to force a somewhat interested expression. If I looked as distraught as I felt I might send off the wrong signals and I didn't want people to ask why I wasn't happy about the plan moving forward. They were all mind controlled and aimed at this goal, they wouldn't understand how awful it truly was.

As Barton and Selvig started talking I stood up and quietly excused myself, trying not to draw attention to myself and made my escape from the room, trying to walk at a casual pace. As soon as I was away from the main chamber and more crowded halls, I started running however, not paying attention to where I ran, just running. My heart beating rapidly I sped around turn after turn along identical brick and cement hallways lined with pipes and wires until it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. Aching and panting I crumpled onto the floor. This was too much.

I spent a good while huddled on the floor like that, holding back my terrible emotions of fear and anger and sadness and confusion, none of which I ever enjoyed having to endure. This was the second time today that I've had a bit of a meltdown with my emotions, I thought with a huffed, humorless laugh to myself that sounded more like a cough or a dry sob. I sniffed and blinked several times to ward away the tears that threatened to leak down my face. I would not have this overrun of emotions. I had to pull myself together and get through. They knew they needed iridium, so what? It was rare, Eric said, who knows how long it would take them to find as much as they needed? Maybe they never would. I hated this plan, the alien invasion and subsequent overthrow of the world, but I could see nothing that I could do to stop it. I just had to get on and hopefully things would turn out alright... I had to believe that.

With another sniff I pushed myself off the cold, cement floor and set about trying to figure out where I had gotten myself. It took at least half an hour before I had finally found my way back to the kitchen where everything but the dishes had been taken care of in my absence. Sending Ed and Ben away, I got down to the pile of casserole smudged dishes, working furiously and yet mindlessly on them as I held off my emotions and kept my mind at bay. I'd always had such a great, vivid imagination, and luckily I had become pretty good at curbing it over the years or else this entire situation would've been one to send me into insanity. I focused hard on not thinking, I couldn't even concentrate on my music as it blared into my ears, though my mouth sang out along with the songs without my mind's promptings. I was so unfocused on anything else that I was only vaguely aware that the mountain of grimy plates, bowls, cups, and silverware was slowly but surely disappearing from the sink and that the cupboards were filling with the cleaned versions.