CHAPTER SIXTEEN —
( Flying monkeys. )
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After returning to the Quinjet, Evelyn pulled the top half of her suit down to leave herself in her black tank top and pants. When they reached the Helicarrier, the group sat around a table on the bridge to talk about Loki and the Tesseract. The group included Evelyn, Thor, Steve, Bruce, Natasha and Eliza, the last one having kicked her legs onto the round table and eating a bowl of spaghetti bolognese. They watched the screens before them as Loki had his handcuffs taken off and placed into a large glass cell. Fury walked 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 pressed a button that opened up a hatch underneath Loki's cell. Loki peered down as much as he could from the glass. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury closed the hatch and pointed at Loki. "Ant." He then pointed at the button which would drop Loki down the steel trap. "Boot."
Loki began smirking. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."
"Built for something a lot stronger than you."
"Oh, I've heard." Loki then looked directly into the camera that the group was watching from. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." Evelyn glanced up at Bruce who began to play with his hands. "How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"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 me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something," Fury turned around and walked away.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked.
"He has an army called the Chitauri," he said. "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 asked.
"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce said.
"Selvig?" Thor asked.
"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce told him.
"He's a friend," Thor said.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha told him.
"Along with one of ours." Evelyn and Natasha caught each other's gaze.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here," Steve said.
"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," Bruce said.
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother and Evelyn's father," Thor said.
"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha told him.
There was a brief pause.
"He's adopted," Thor said.
"You don't choose your parents," Evelyn shrugged.
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asked.
Evelyn was about to speak up when someone else spoke. "It's a stabilising agent," Tony Stark said as he entered the room. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D.." Tony turned to Thor. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." He patted Thor's chest. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. 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."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria Hill asked.
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked.
Evelyn slowly raised her hand. "I did."
Tony smiled at her. "Good job, Evie."
"Same here," Eliza said.
"Hey, E! How's life been since working for these people?" Tony asked Eliza, walking up to her to ruffle her hair.
"It gets boring, but it's nice knowing that I'm the best hacker in the business," she replied, pushing Tony's hand away.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce said.
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect," Tony said.
"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Evelyn piped up.
"Finally, people who speak English," Tony patted Evelyn's shoulder. "I never knew you were that smart, Evie."
"Yes, you did, " Evelyn mumbled.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked, looking around at everyone.
Tony and Bruce shook hands. "It's good to meet you, Dr Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
Bruce looked down. "Thanks," he mumbled. Fury then walked into the room.
"Dr Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you, Eliza, and Evelyn might join him," Fury told Tony.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA Weapon," Steve said.
"I don't think it's a HYDRA weapon, but it is powered by the cube, and I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys," Fury said.
"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor said, confused.
"I do!" Steve sat up, finally understanding something in the conversation. "I understood that reference." Tony rolled his eyes while Steve looked proud of himself.
"That's only because the Wizard Of Oz came out before you went under," Evelyn nudged him.
"Shall we play, doctor? Bestie?" Tony asked Bruce.
"Let's play some," Bruce said.
"Got nothin' better to do," Eliza responded.
"Evie, dear, are you coming to join our play time?" Tony asked.
"Not if you put it like that." Evelyn smiled lightly at Steve before walking out after Bruce, Tony and Eliza.