Ch. 6 He's Adopted

                                    

                                          
Loki is now free from his cuffs and is contained in a large glass cell held by hydraulic rigs. Fury and I walk up to the control panel of the cell. 
                          
"In case it's unclear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass." Fury presses a button which opens up a hatch underneath Loki's cell. Loki peers as much as he can from the glass. Without seeing, the sounds of gusting wind would make any man shit his pants. Not a god, though. "Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury then closes the hatch and points at Loki. "Ant." Then points at the button that would drop Loki. "Boot."
                          
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki says. 
                          
"Built for something a lot stronger than you." I tell him, crossing my arms. 
                          
"Oh, I've heard." He turns his head and looks directly into the security camera. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"
                          
"How desperate are we? You threaten our world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control." Fury starts. "You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made us very desperate."
                          
"You might not be glad you did." I add. 
                          
"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."
                          
"Well, you let one of us know if real power wants a magazine or something." I tell him as Fury and I begin to walk out of the room. 
                          
I enter the briefing room, and find Steve, Banner, Thor, and Nat around a large table. 
         
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" I say as I enter. 
                          
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asks. Thor is snapped back into reality after his mind wanders off. 
                          
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the tesseract."
                          
"An army? From outer space?" Steve sits back in his chair and crosses his arms. Raising his eyebrow at his ridiculous words. 
                          
"So he's building another portal? That's what he needs Selvig for." Banner says. 
                          
"Selvig?" Thor questions. 
                          
"He's an astrophysicist." I tell him. 
                          
"He's a friend." Thor looks to me. 
                          
"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Nat says, then looks to me. "Along with one of ours."
                          
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from in here." Steve states. 
                          
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Banner jokes. 
                          
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor says, glaring at Banner. 
                          
"He killed eighty people in two days." I say, crossing my arms. 
                          
"He's adopted."
                          
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Banner tried to change the subject. 
                          
"It's a stabilizing agent..." I begin, but I'm cut off by my brother walking in with Coulson. 
                          
"I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive. Rams the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He starts and then walks over to Thor. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." He playfully nudges his arm and then walks to the main control panel. "Also it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He then directs his attention to the crew. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Then he covers his right eye and looks around. "How does Fury do this?"
                          
"He turns." I say, crossing my arms. Then I notice Tony place a button sized hacking implant under his desk. Nobody else notices, but I decide to stay quiet about it, because more often than not, Fury doesn't tell us the whole truth. 
                          
"Well, that sounds exhausting."
                          
"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." I inform everyone. Then Tony looks at me with a raised eyebrow. 
                          
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"
                          
"Last night. The packet, Selvigs notes." I look around me and everyone is staring at me. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"
                          
"You haven't changed a bit, Char." Tony smiles and looks down. 
                          
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asks us. 
                          
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." I inform him. He looks at me with wide eyes. 
                          
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony states. I look at him. 
                          
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Dr. Banner says before me. 
                          
"Finally, people who speak English." Tony says, smirking at me. 
                          
"We get it, you're the smartest ones in the room." Nat says, rolling her eyes. 
                          
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asks, looking confused. Tony then walks over to Bruce, and shakes his hand. There's a slight glimmer in each of their eyes, telling me they have mutual respect for each other. 
                          
"It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. You're work in anti-electrons is unparalleled." He lets go of his hand. "And I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
                          
"Thanks." Banner mumbles and then looks down. Fury then walks in. 
                          
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." He says to my brother. 
                          
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve states. 
                          
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury says, then I cut in. 
                          
"I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." I say, referring to Barton and Selvig. 
                          
"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor says, giving me a confused look. 
                          
"I did! I understood that reference." Steve says. He gives me a smile and I return it. Tony just rolls his eyes. 
                          
"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asks Banner. 
                          
"Let's play some." He responds and they walk out together into the lab.