Clara Lewis: S.H.I.E.L.D agent, New Yorker, accidental time traveller- wait what?!
Clara thought being a S.H.I.E.L.D agent made her life as crazy as it would get. Ever since her accident in the field, she'd become a desk agent but working as Phil C...
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"This is agent Romanoff, does anyone copy?" they heard from the helicarrier's sound system once Loki was safely on board the quinjet.
"This is Director Fury, I copy." He replied too calmly for Clara liking.
"We've lost Loki and a third party has intervened, I think it's Thor. Stark and Cap have gone after him but for now, Loki's gone."
Fury sighed and covered his face with his hand before replying: "Just get him back."
Clara once again sauntered over to Phil.
"I know this is a time for action and not I told you so," she noted, "but I told you so."
Everyone on the main deck was in absolute silence. Not receiving anything from the quinjet could only mean they'd lost Loki and the war would resume. S.H.I.E.L.D had potentially lost two of their best, Captain America and Iron man. There was no plan of action if this were the case. There would be no Avengers initiative if Captain America and Iron man were compromised and, not that it measured up, but Clara would be out of a job. She doubted that Phil would be able to create yet another position just for her.
The atmosphere didn't improve once it was confirmed that Captain America, Iron man and Thor, who was on their side after all, had recaptured Loki. He was brought aboard and imprisoned in a high tech, glass cage. No one knew what his plan was. Just as Clara had suspected, he was far to calm.
Phil had disappeared with Stark, which left Romanoff, Banner, Steve and the new arrival, Thor, sat around the table at the back of the main deck. Clara, being Phil's plus one, was allowed to join them. They sat in silence for a while before Steve took authority and asked the question on everyone's lips.
"Thor, what's Loki's play?"
Then Thor confirmed S.H.I.E.L.D's worst suspicions.
"He has an army. The Chitauri, they are not of this world. They will win him the Earth in return for the Tesseract."
Banner, who had been pacing at the back of the room, nervously wringing his hands, chimed in.
"So that's why he need Erik Selvig, he's building another portal."
"Selvig?" Thor asked and Banner nodded in confirmation, "He's a friend." He said gravely.
"Loki's got him under some sort of spell, along with one of ours." Romanoff confirmed in an almost comforting manner.
"Doesn't all this sound a bit too convenient?" Clara mumbled, mainly to herself, but Steve picked up on it.
"I agree."
'wow, that was unexpected', Clara thought, her head snapping up at Steve's words, "Loki seems too calm to be here."
"And if he has Barton, then perhaps he knows more than he's letting on." Clara acknowledged, although she didn't want to be right.
"Loki's mind is a bag of cats!" Banner interjected. "He's crazy! I don't think we should be focusing on him."
"How can we not focus on Loki? He is a threat and we've potentially delivered him right where he needs to be!" Clara argued, too close to slamming her fist on the table in anguish.
"Be careful how you speak," Thor boomed, "Loki is still my brother."
"He murdered eighty people in two days." Romanoff retorted.
"He's adopted." Thor replied, much too quickly.
"But what does he need all these parts for? What's the iridium for?" Banner mused. Clara was one step away from banging her head on the table in despair. These four people were supposed to be Earth's heroes yet they can't decide on anything. It was at that precise moment that Stark decided to make his grand entrance, accompanied by Phil. Stark's belittling personality was just enough to push Clara over the edge, she could only hope he'd play nice.
"It's a stabilizing agent." He answered snidely, because of course everyone should already know that. He entered the room with Phil, muttering to him something about taking Phil up to Portland to see his girlfriend, Audrey, then continued to explain the mechanics behind Loki's plan very condescendingly. From all the times she and Phil had had to work with Stark surrounding his Iron man shenanigans, Clara had gotten to know Stark rather well. He was going to go over everything slowly but not elaborate on anything, mainly to show off his knowledge but also to put everyone else down.
"They need the portal to stabilize so it doesn't collapse again. It means Loki can open it as wide and for as long as he wants. Barton would be able to get his hands on any of the materials Loki needs relatively easily, we all saw what happened in Germany. The only major thing they still need is a power source." Stark said, over confidently and too cockily for the rest of the team's liking. Agent Hill, who Clara had idolised since she'd first joined S.H.I.E.L.D, did what they all wanted to do: chide him.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear physics?" She muttered sarcastically.
"Last night." Stark retorted without hesitation. It seemed that 'last night' was a thing he said all too often. Now what could that mean?
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked, getting back on topic, and to also stop Stark from making any other snide response.
"He'll have to heat the cube to 120-million kelvin in order to do anything with the Tesseract."
Banner and Stark then had a deep conversation riddled with scientific knowledge and prowess that Clara simply did not possess. The gist of it, Selvig is smart and Stark and Banner are now friends.
"What about his scepter?" Clara asked. "How does that work?"
Stark was more than willing to answer and show off, but Steve beat him too it.
"It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I'd like to know how it turned two of the sharpest agents into Loki's personal flying monkeys." Fury said as he emerged from seemingly nowhere to oversee the team.
"Monkeys?" Thor mused.
"I understood that." Steve muttered as a small smile crept across his face and quickly vanished again.
After Steve's outburst, Stark ushered Banner into one of the many, many laboratories on the helicarrier and the meeting was finally disbanded, leaving Clara to wonder, what, if anything, had been achieved. This Avengers team were going to need to put in some work if it was going to be successful.
