Unexpected

Breaking Free

In the lit up, curtained off section of the room where the Tesseract and its machine had always been since my arrival there was nothing but the desks and equipment of Doctor Selvig. Where was the doctor? Was he gone too? Where were all the men in combat-ready gear? I had a sinking, sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew what was happening and what had happened, but I wanted to hear it myself. Until then I couldn't believe it, not really.

Marching into the room I rushed past the small crowd of scientists until I came upon the familiar group of lab coats, the cat eye glasses woman, the middle aged, red haired man, and the young lady that had wrapped up my hands after the refrigerator incident. Immediately upon seeing me they made their moves to back away, leave without making it look like they were fleeing, but I wasn't having any of that, not now.

"Stop!" I commanded as they scurried away. "I order you to stop!"

I hadn't really expected them to listen to my demand. I had thought they'd all run off and I'd have to chase one of them down like I had the lab coat with the curly hair and glasses, but as soon as my words left my mouth they all froze and stood rooted to the ground looking at me uncomfortably with their empty turquoise eyes.

"Please." The glasses lady said, "Remember, if you get any closer we're going to get punished."

"By whom?" I asked stepping closer to them anyways so that I was no longer yelling, "Who is going to punish you? Loki isn't around, Barton's free, and all the combat men with their big scary guns have left. You've nothing and no one to fear except for me and I need answers...now."

They looked between themselves, and then seemed to become resigned to their predicament. "What do you need to know?" the red haired man asked, gripping his clipboard tightly until his knuckles had turned pale white, the closest thing to emotions that I've ever seen him show.

"Where'd they go?"

"You're going to need to be more spec-"one started before I quickly interrupted.

"No, don't give me that! You're brainwashed, but you're not dumb. You know what I'm talking about."

The red headed man swallowed, "Master Loki and his men left to start the plan with Doctor Selvig and the Tesseract."

"When?"

"Just over an hour ago."

An hour ago? I must have slept longer than I thought... the plan was started... it was happening, getting set up... now. I couldn't let this happen; I couldn't hide down here and allow the world to be destroyed. Making my decision I spun on my heel and rushed off out of the main room, through the halls to the kitchen where my phone was sitting on the counter plugged into the wall. Ignoring Ben and Ed who were already there preparing for breakfast and cleaning up from my little late-night snack I grabbed at my phone and checked the time. It was seven in the morning.

"Penelope, you look stressed." Ben's voice said from behind me as I stared down at the screen in shock for a second, my shoulders tense as I tried to plan through my next moves.

"I'm fine." I said, my voice sharper than I had meant, "Sorry, just-keep things working here, you know what to do." It surprised me that he would make a comment of any kind. Ed and Ben rarely spoke without being spoken to, much less makes comments based on my well-being, or noticing my emotions, but I couldn't dwell on them right now.

I then took my phone, earbuds and all, out of the wall and marched out of the kitchen and to my room. Hurriedly I pulled on my light colored jeans, gray t-shirt, and black convers. These were my most durable clothes. I then brushed out my hair and tied it up into a simple bun before making my way through the hallways again. Striding back through the main chamber I gave the room one last look over before entering another set of hallways, trying to remember the way to the parking garage where the cars were. I needed to find Loki, stop this. Yes it was his wish for me to remain here, to be safe and away from the battle that was to occur, but how could I? I had known that I wouldn't be able to stay below. That's why I hadn't answered him directly. After what felt like a half hour of darting through the halls and opening wrong doors I finally came up to the large, low ceilinged room of black vehicles. There were only three black cars left now. Loki and his minions must have taken all the rest earlier. Looking over the walls near the door I found a little box hanging on the wall that could only have held the keys to the cars. Trying the handle, it wouldn't open.