LOYALTY || T. ODINSON

✴ EIGHT ✴

"We need to act," Penhallow demanded down the phone. "We have a rouge in the field, Morgenstern. The waiting game has been played for long enough."

"I understand, Counsul," Kalli replied, still annoyed at the name she had the burden of carrying, "however, the Mundanes are still running tests on the scepter. I understand your frustration, but they need more time."

"Get your hands dirty, Soldier."

"I'm not a physicist," Kalli answered back, "I'm a bio-chemist."

"You have an hour or I'm releasing the search and arrest warrant without your assistance."

Penhallow then ended the call, causing Kalli to sigh. Kalli had already tasked some free agents to locate Collin Branwell, however, it was taking more time than Kalli originally thought and Stark and Banner were still testing Loki's weapon. The Clave were getting more and more restless and Inquisitor Alexander Lightwood was contemplating on arresting Kalli to bring her in for questioning on her apparent lack of effort, basically saying that Kalli was conspiring against The Clave.

Kalli walked back to the bridge, hopefully to have an update on the search. The Shadowhunter had given Maria Hill the job of overlooking the operation, while Kalli worked on her theory; Kalli being correct.

Branwell had worked for The Cirlce, a terrorist organisation ran by the Morgenstern family, and when the organisation collapsed, Branwell  took it upon himself to go to any lengths necessary to wipe out The Clave and the Downworlders, the half demon and half human hybrids. The only way he could achieve this was to drag The Clave into the chaos along with stealing two of The Mortal Instruments. With The Mortal Instruments, Branwell is able to create a heat source, charging the Tesseract with the required energy and opening the portal to bring in the Chitauri.

"Any news?" Kalli asked, approaching Maria as soon as she entered the bridge.

Maria shook her head. "Only glimpses of him through surveillance around the Manhattan area."

Kalli sighed. "That's better than nothing, I guess. Keep looking, I'm gonna check on the boys down in the lab."

Kalli then left and made her way down to the labs, all this information swirling around her head. First Chris and Clint being compromised, then finding out a ghost from her past was now carrying out Circle plans from a few decades ago. To be honest, Kalli didn't want to know what else could go wrong. Well, several thing could, but she didn't want to think about that.

Just as Kalli entered the lab, she found Steve and Tony stood toe-to-toe with Fury, Romanoff, Banner and Odinson watching on. "Big man in a suit of armour," Steve said, staring Tony dead in the eye. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony shrugged.

Kalli rolled her eyes. The Battle of Egos had only just begun. She moved to stand inbetween Thor and Natasha as the two men, who had the biggest egos going, continued to argue. "How long have they been at this for?" Kalli asked as the three observed.

"About ten minutes," Natasha replied, getting sick and tired of the bickering between Stark and Rogers.

"It's the Battle of Egos, I swear to the Angels."

"A hero? Like you?" Tony scoffed. "You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

"For the love of Raziel," Kalli grumbled as she pinched the bridge of her nose, causing the God beside her to chuckle quietly.

If possible, Steve got even closer to Tony, eventually getting in the latter's face. Natasha and Kalli just stood, watching on as things quickly escalated between the two men. "Put on the suit, let's go a through rounds," Steve challenged, making Tony narrowing his eyes.