Tesseract, the Space Stone
April 1st 2012
SHIELD Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S Facility
Out in New Mexico Desert
“Brucie-bear, how is… Wait, where are you right now? Are you still in the land of spices?” Tony stood against one of the pillar in the radiation section of the facility, anxiously. “Or are you somewhere in Uncle Sam’s country? You know, it’s been a while since I saw you and Betty. And I even missed the mean green. I’m glad you listened to my dad about letting out the big guy every once in a while. He is after all still a part of you. I made that amulet for you so that you can control your transformation, not suppress his existence. And…”
Then his rant was stopped when a familiar female voice answered from the other line, “Hi, Tony. How are you?“
He would recognized that voice anywhere. “Betty, dear. How is my favorite science bro’s wife? And how is he?”
The female scientist giggled,” We’re great. Bruce is in the toilet right now. And actually we arrived in America yesterday to visit his cousin.”
“The lawyer? Didn’t she live in LA?”
“Yes, Jennifer Walters, “ said Betty. “She got an offer at some hot shot firm in New Mexico. So, she moved across the country last month.”
“Really?” Tony sounded surprise. “You’re in the land of Enchantment? Right now?”
“Hi, Tony, “ Bruce’s voice came through the phone.
“Brucie-kin!” Tony whooped. “So good to hear your voice! Am I on speaker?”
“Yes, Tony, “ he said exasperatedly while his wife chuckled in the background. “So why are you calling?”
“What? Can’t I call my favorite scientist once in a while?”
“We just talked last week, “ the physicist said dryly. The genius could literary imagine his science-bro rolling his eyes at him. “So, what is the purpose behind this call?”
“Well since we’re both in New Mexico anyway, “ he was nervous for what he’s about to say next.”
He looked around the facility. Everything was in chaos. Selvig got his head cut when Tony tackled him and was being taking care of by an agent. Clint had an ice pack against the side of his head to nurse the bump on his head. Fury was debating with his father a few feet away from him with agent-agent trying to be their intermediary. His step-mom was ordering the agents around, at least the agents who stayed behind after the evacuation of the facility and have regained conciousness.
25 mins ago…
1 PM (NM 2 hours behind of NY)
As of 4 hours ago, the tesseract started to turned on by itself the second time around while they had a break for brunch. It has done that last night, which prompted Fury in the insistence of agent-agent to call for Tony and his father for help.
Along with his father and doctor Selvig, they have tried everything to analyze and turn it off, because they have succeeded the first time but now it just kept on turning on every time they shut it off. So the evacuation of the facility has been enacted incase the energy surge from the Tesseract exploded the buildings.
The young inventor wanted to use his magic to analyze the alien blue cube, but it wasn’t exactly a good idea to do so in a place full of electronic and machines that haven’t been imbued to be resistant towards magic. It would look out of place when the place shut down and anyway the tesseract itself is basically an energy source…
Dear Morgana, for a genius, he was an idiot.
He looked towards the agents running around and his father and Selvig to make sure nobody was watching him, before he talked to JARVIS in his earpiece. “J, put a loop on the cameras for a minute.”
With an affirmative from his AI, he flicked his wrist while he whispered some strong incantations to analyze the thing.
Suddenly the power shut down and a few of the machines closer to them let out some fire sparks as they turned off. Not a few seconds after, the whole facility started to turn on by itself again as if the back-up generator didn’t just fry because of Tony’s magic.
“That’s weird,” Selvig emerged from behind the CMS machine and looked at the Tesseract with a confused look. “Did she just overpower and snap the electricity?”
Tony sighed to himself as he met his father’s gaze across from him and mouthed,” I’ve tried.”
The former CEO of SI gave him a short nod before talking back to Selvig from where he was standing behind the scientist.
Then the one-eyed pirate suddenly appeared behind them, demanding,” Mr. stark, Doctor, talk to me.”
As they got into talking, Tony got more annoyed at the director. He lacked a certain respect at his father. Howard Stark may not have a formal degree, but he was an exceptional master of engineer and inventor, damn it.
Standing up with his arms crossed over his chest, Tony grunted to get the furriest Fury attention,” The thing has been throwing out some low Levels of gamma radiation. If you have consult this with me and father months before, we could have given you our expert’s opinions,” then he glared at the bald-headed man,” After all, SI is the current leading company in clean energy.”
The man shot him with a cold eye,” You weren’t even supposed to know about this project, son. You should be thankful to Coulson to even be brought to this project.”
“Well, if it wasn’t for us. This would have happened last night, “ he shot back, feeling rather pissed at the bald-headed eagle.
“You served your country well, “ he jeered.
“Is that a thank you? Because that didn’t sound like a thank you, “ his father said in a frosty tone next to the current Director of SHIELD.
Ignoring both of them, he called for Barton which the fidgety astrophysicist replied about the spy assassin being up on his nest. The director talked to Barton and the blonde-haired man rappelled down from the railings above them.
Bird-brain subtlety gave him an apologetic look at his boss’ crappy thank you and reported to him as they walked away.
The younger Stark could hear his father grumbled about the attitude and respect from the younger generation. Tony sighed, “Coulson is a saint to put up with that asshole.”
“You knew agent Coulson?” Dr. Selvig asked curiously.
Rolling his eyes, he answered, “Well, he’s Hil… Mrs. Hill-Evans best friend. We met a couple of times. But I never knew he was an agent from one of the government’s alphabet soup.”
“Hill-Evans? You know the Deputy Director of SHIELD?”
Tony pretended to gasp in surprise, “ She worked for SHIELD? I only know her as my da… My ex-butler’s wife.”
For all they knew, he was clueless to SHIELD’s existence even if his father and godmother were its first directors. Only Coulson, Clint, Natashalie and Hill knew the truth.
“Wow, what a small world, huh, “ the good doctor shook his head in amusement.
From behind him, he noticed his father rolled his eyes at him in fondness. Before they could chit-chat some more, a NASA scientist came to Selvig to inform him that the cube was spiking again.
As they went back to work, suddenly the tesseract began to thunder and shake the entire facility, flaring rings and glow of the cube spout out brighter and louder, like a boiling pot of water. The research energy built up into a beam and hit the end of the platform that was wire to the CMS machine. The great maelstrom beam fired the Tesseract energy. The beam then formed a vortex, which then opened up a portal.
A black hole was created and from the blackness of space, strewn with a billion stars and a gust of blue energy clouds filled the room, blinding everyone. The Tesseract's energy formed into a cloud that reached to the top of the facility's vacuum chamber ceiling. It's abnormally quiet. Then... heavy breathing was heard from the platform.
SHIELD guards slowly approached, weapons in hands. A figure with cloak was kneeling on the platform, smoke coming off it. He rose his head up, showing them his literary alien grey face and looked deep into their eyes. Then he stood up, holding a scepter. (courtesy. Avengers1 script imsdb)
Nicky boy tried to reason with the alien but one thing let to another and blue lights started exploding from the scepter towards them. Barton tackled Fury while Tony brought his father and Selvig down to cover them. All hell broke loose.
Shots were fired at the alien as desperate measures called for desperate time, Tony had to choose between using magic or his iron man suit. Well with the power play from the scepter and how it held several other agents under his control, he guessed both were needed.
Thank Merlin there were a few sections put under American wizarding laws about the use of magic when encountering dark wizards and weird violent extraterrestrial encounters in front of the presence of no-majs. His dad rocked his world at this moment for submitting that weird law proposal and got it approve last decade.
The billionaire immediately summoned his suit with its sentry mode from his dimensional pocket, “ Take father and Selvig to safety.”
"Woah," Selvig exclaimed when the suit's arm took a hold of him.
His father looked at the black armored suit with wide-eyed when it held him and Selvig in its arms before shooting Tony with accusing eyes, with a ‘you made this cool shit and didn’t tell me about it’ kind of look.
He chanted a quick protego for himself and Fury, who was putting the tesseract into a case. The engineer cringed at the look on his father’s face, “ I promise I’ll explain later, father.”
Then the suit took off flying them towards the tunnel as his father shouted his name, fear of Tony’s safety marred his expression. Soon the suit was out of sight and Tony got back to the fight.
Suddenly his arm was grabbed and he turned around to face Fury. With a look of thunder, Fury squeezed his arm tightly and demanded, “ That’s the ghost. SHIELD has been trying to recruit the vigilante for years but apparently after he stormed the last HYDRA stronghold, he and the winter soldier disappeared. You’re him.”
“Less chit-chat and more shooting, pirate, “ he jerked away from the SHIELD leader. “And you’re welcome by the way.”
From his peripheral vision, he saw the alien was busy turning more agents and eventually he directed his scepter at birdbrain. As he prepared to throw some offensive spells, the alien introduced himself, “ I am Other, Thanos most loyal servant. I am here to take the tesseract to my master, mortal.”
Tony made up his mind immediately to protect the tesseract and scrunched his nose at the thought that he needed Fury to hold onto the case, which meant protecting the A-hole while he distracted the alien and his acquired new minions.
The hypnotized agents began firing their weapons at them, even Barton was shooting arrows at them. Their only protection at this moment was hiding behind the thick pillar.
“You run, I’ll be the bait, “ Tony ordered the man.
Firing back, Fury brows furrowed at him, “ What the f*ck are you talking about Stark?! The place is about to blow up!”
“Protego totalum!” he protected himself from the bullets when he stepped out of the pillar and fired some offensive spells, “Stupefy! Confringo! Bombarda!”
His spells just short-circuited the whole place, making the whole place quite dark. Only lights from the windows brightened the whole space.
Then he turned around for a sec to catch a look of bafflement on the pirate’s face before he flicked his wrist, “Boom no more. Areando.” (* a spell to push someone away strongly from their current position, but not enough to knock them)
“Go! Get that thing out of here!” He barked at him. The director nodded curtly and ran with the case in his hand and a gun in his other hand.
The metal-charmer began charming the machine and shaped it into a couple of big bears. They began swinging their arms to hit the controlled agents into unconsciousness.
“After him, “ Other hissed at Barton who shot a cable arrow towards the railings above them, that wasn’t in the range of his protego. “Shit!”
Then he felt the laser attack of the scepter breaking his barrier and his hold over the magic behind his metal bears. The bears crumbled onto the floor but at least they had knocked off all the other brainwashed agents.
Fortunately, Tony managed to defend himself but he was pushed back relentlessly by the other. The wizard quickly casted a magic shield to defend himself from the clash of the scepter.
He was pushed back and fell on his back. Before he could be touched by the sharp edge of the spear, his suit appeared and shoot the alien with the repulsors. The Other was blasted away and hit the wall.
Then a couple of arrows flew towards him. His suit immediately stepped in and caught the arrows, throwing them away. The arrows exploded on the air.
“Sir, are you alright?” the suit asked.
“J?”
“I took over the control of the suit after you put it on sentient mode, sir, “ JARVIS explained.
Before he could respond, he saw Barton next to the alien, presented his ‘new boss’ with the case that Tony was last seeing in Fury’s hand. As much as he disliked the man, he didn’t want him dead. Hopefully he’s alive.
Merlin b*lls!
“It was a very good fight, human, “ the Other stood up and took out the blue cube from the case. It began to shimmer with blue light before a portal appeared behind him. “But this is the end.”
“Accio tesseract!” He shouted. The portal disappeared as the cube flew to him. The billionaire was relieved that the tesseract could be taken with his magic until it stopped halfway and dropped to the floor.
Yeah, magic didn’t work well when he tried to analyze the alien thing, but seriously if it only flew to him closer…
“J take the damn cube!”
His AI flew the suit but Barton shot an explosive arrow at it, knocking the suit away. Tony shot a flipendo at Barton and his head was knocked against the wall before he planted his face on the floor.
Unfortunately, the billionaire didn’t count for the Other to shoot another ray at him.
Tony almost couldn’t defend himself and stagger at the powerful ray hitting his magic shield, and at that split second the Other took the tesseract and opened the portal once more. “Until next time, Midgardian mage.”
Turned out, Fury was alive. The damn cockroach worn his vest when Barton fired his bullets at him in the chest. He came to demand an explanation of Tony with vengeance. Thank Isold, his father and Coulson took over the explanation about magic. He just wished they could withheld asking about his suit even with it standing guard next to him.
J managed to inform him that New York was being invaded by a spaceship approximately 15 mins ago, but only a few groups of aliens have been seen around the city terrorizing the people. The AI told him that Rhodey, Pepper and the twins, even Mia were saved at the moment in the safety of the panic room under the tower.
Hill told him that his mom, dad and sister were alright for now with Harry’s protective spell, but the pale look on her face showed him that she’s trying to stay strong even though she really wanted to make sure of their current safety with her own two eyes. She began coordinating with SHIELD agents in New York to defend the civilians on phone and the conscious agents here to take her mind out of being worried.
Desperate time called for desperate measure. It’s time to bring the big gun out.
“So J told me there’s an alien spaceship in NYC. So, I kind of need to pick up the big guy, right now. New York needs us, “ his eyes looked hardened as he met his father and Hill’s eyes. “My family needs us.”
***
NB: *Aurors from every countries in America was called to create a protective barriers around New York, containing the spaceship or chitauri inside the city. It was not enough for them to hide the existence of aliens from the world, but enough to hide the wizards from the eyes of the world. It’s also the reason why none of the aurors came to help Tony when aliens came. They have bigger aliens to deal with.
***