One Year Later: May 3rd, 2012
Maria Hill's mind flashed back to that fateful exchange between her, Director Fury and Coulson after the SHIELD facility caved in from the Tesseract's energy surge.
"Director... Director Fury, do you copy?" Phil's voice had crackled through the comms.
"The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?" Fury replied. She remembered the knot forming in her stomach.
"A lot of men are still trapped; I don't know how many survived," Hill had reported.
"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not in search and rescue looking for that briefcase," Fury ordered, referring to Loki.
"Roger that." Hill was, if nothing else, a good soldier.
But it was what Fury said next that really shook her.
"Coulson, head back to base. This is a Level 7. As of right now, we are at war."
War. That term hadn't been used in such a dire context since the 1940s.
And so, they prepared for it. They summoned the mightiest men and women SHIELD could assemble: Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, and even Dr. Banner—though the doctor was recruited primarily for his expertise in gamma radiation to track the cube.
They eventually found their target. Not the cube, but the man behind the threat. Loki was intercepted in Germany and taken into custody. Aside from Thor crashing their transport mid-flight and ultimately joining their side to stop Loki's designs for Earth, the transition to the Helicarrier had been relatively stable.
Now, as she monitored the bridge, she listened to the tense conversation between Rogers, Romanoff, Dr. Banner, and Thor.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Dr. Banner remarked sarcastically.
"Loki is going to drag this out," the Captain said, turning toward the God of Thunder. "Thor, what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard, nor 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 concluded grimly.
"An army? From outer space?" Captain Rogers repeated, as if tasting the words.
The situation had just escalated to a Global level threat. If Loki truly had an armada at his back... Hill didn't even want to finish that thought.
"So he needs a portal. That's why he took Erik Selvig," Dr. Banner deduced.
"Selvig?" Thor inquired.
"He's an astrophysicist," Banner replied.
"He is a friend," Thor added softly.
"Loki has them under some kind of spell, including one of our own," Natasha spoke up, her mind clearly on Clint Barton.
"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve interrupted. "He isn't leading an army from in here."
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag of cats; you can smell the crazy on him," Banner said, fidgeting with his glasses.
"Have care how you speak," Thor warned. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."
"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha countered flatly.
Thor paused, the weight of the facts hitting him. "He's adopted."
"I'm thinking about the mechanics. The iridium... what do they need the iridium for?" Banner questioned. Just then, Tony Stark and Phil Coulson walked into the lab.
"It's a stabilizing agent. It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at the SHIELD base," Stark announced the moment he entered.
He moved toward Thor, patting the god's arm. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can stay open as wide and as long as Loki wants."
Stark marched directly toward the control consoles as if he were the captain of some medieval flagship, taking command.
"Raise the mizzenmast, ship the topsails! That man is playing Galaga—thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Tony Stark didn't break stride as he walked.
He placed a hand over his left eye and turned to Hill. "How does Fury even see these?" he asked, gesturing to the obscured left-side monitors.
"He turns," she replied flatly.
"Sounds exhausting," Stark muttered. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density—something to kick-start the Cube."
"When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked sarcastically.
"Last night," Stark countered. "Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers... am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers inquired, trying to ground the conversation.
"He'd have to heat the Cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner replied, still fidgeting with those same glasses.
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Stark added.
"Well, if he can do that, then he could achieve heavy ion fusion on any reactor on the planet," Banner concluded.
Stark pointed at Banner with a grin. "Finally! Someone who speaks English."
"Is that what just happened?" Rogers asked, looking as lost in the dark as everyone else in the room.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony added. "Your work on anti-electron collision is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
"Thanks," Banner replied, visibly uncomfortable with the mention of the Hulk.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," Director Fury interjected while walking in, addressing Stark. "I was hoping you might join him."
"Let's start with that stick of his," Rogers gave his two cents. "It may be magical, but it works awfully like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube," Fury said. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor questioned. Apparently, Asgard lacked primates.
"I do! I understood that reference," Captain Rogers replied immediately.
Thor looked around the room, his eyes finally landing on Coulson. He spoke directly to him: "Where is your lightning warrior... Ethan Park?"
Phil looked like he had been waiting for that exact question. "I think you might be able to help us in that regard," he said, placing a wooden box on the table. Inside lay a kunai, badly damaged.
When Ethan had been blasted away by the Destroyer, the blade—though not in the direct line of fire—had been scorched and cracked by the proximity of the Odinforce blast.
"Ethan gave you one too, right? Ours was damaged, and I didn't have a chance to request a new one before he flew away," Phil added.
"Flew?" Rogers questioned.
"What is happening here?" Tony also seemed lost. Though he had encountered Ethan, he hadn't seen the boy's face.
"You know Ethan?" Banner asked Thor.
"Yes. He helped defeat the Destroyer. How do you know him?" Thor asked.
"He is a friend," Banner added.
Hill knew Ethan and the Hulk had a connection dating back to the Harlem incident, but now she had confirmation.
Seeing the commotion, Fury interjected.
"As far as we know, Ethan Park is a superpowered human with a strange array of abilities—from flight and super-strength to the ability to heal the fatally wounded." As he spoke, a blurry image of Ethan walking out of a crumbled Mexican home appeared on the screen.
Tony stared at the footage, fixated on the wheel hovering above the figure. "Hey... I know that guy. He was there during the whole Obadiah Stane situation. I asked you people if you knew him, and you said you didn't." Stark said while pointing at Coulson " And I'm not even going to ask about the flight or the super-strength... but what do you mean, 'heal fatal wounds'?" He turned to Fury, then looked at Phil as if he'd been betrayed by a lifelong friend.
Ignoring Stark, Fury turned back to Thor. "We could really use him right now. So, can you help us with that?"
Thor looked taken aback. That kunai was kept safely in his chambers back home; with his strength and hammer returned, he hadn't thought to carry it everywhere.
He looked around the room and admitted in a low voice, "I forgot it back home. But... does your weapon not glow anymore?"
Thor asked, his hand hovering over the damaged metal. His own kunai always hummed with a faint light whenever he touched it.
"It does... but the glow has diminished significantly since the Destroyer's attack," Phil added, his brow furrowing as he looked at the dull blade.
"Have you tried it then? Throwing it on the ground, I mean?" Thor inquired, his eyes moving between the agents.
"I am completely lost here," Stark interjected, throwing his hands up in a gesture of typical impatience.
"Me too," Captain Rogers added, shifting his weight as he looked at the small, unassuming weapon.
Phil looked toward Director Fury, seeking silent permission. They had not tried it yet; until they learned about an army from outer space, the situation had seemed manageable.
They had preferred to keep Ethan as a last resort, a hidden card in their hand. But the stakes had changed.
They were no longer dealing with a rogue prince, but an invasion.
"Do it," Director Fury commanded.
He gestured for the staff to clear a space in the center of the briefing room. All the agents at the surrounding workstations paused what they were doing, their eyes fixed on the center of the floor as Phil stepped forward.
The room went silent as Phil gripped the hilt, took a steady breath, and threw the kunai hard against the metal floor.
Then, silence.
One second.
Then two seconds.
Five seconds passed.
And then, slowly, a full minute ticked by.
Nothing happened. The blade just lay there, cold and inanimate on the Helicarrier floor.
She , the Director, and Phil exchanged grim glances. They would have to find another way to contact Ethan Park before the sky opened up.
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A/N: So how was the chapter?
According to me, Thor not carrying around that Kunai is accurate for his character.
Let me know your thoughts on that.
This chapter was difficult to write, specially the interaction between the characters when Ethan is involved.
Loki's upscaling vote :
Yes
No
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