Welcome, Rookies
“You know, I thought SHIELD was supposed to be an intelligence agency,” said Rhodes, “not some sci-fi rapid response outfit.”
“We’re whatever the American people need us to be. You know that.” Coulson said, slight reproach in his voice. He was sitting diagonally across from Rhodes, glancing at his watch every so often.
Rhodes leaned forward. “Agent… Barton, right? You’re the other recruit?” Barton, who had been silent until then, stood, nodded, and said “I am. Career SHIELD agent, infiltration specialist, marksman. I work directly for Nick Fury, but if all goes well today, I’ll be working for Bradford by the end of the night.” Rhodes stood as well, and they shook hands across the middle of the Quinjet.
There was a pause, and the elegant roar of the jet’s engines reasserted itself in the silence. They burned steadily and well, cutting through the night air like a ship through water. In all his days in the Air Force, Rhodes had never heard anything so subdued in its power- supersonic capability, from the tech briefing back at the SHIELD outpost. “Why don’t we have any of these?” he asked, looking around at the Quinjet’s interior. “Dr. Moira Vahlen.” said Agent Coulson, matter-of-factly, “She designed the engines.”
Rhodes raised his eyebrows. “I was more asking why the Air Force couldn’t afford them, but you could. Now you’re telling me they’re not even Stark tech, you’ve got a private scientist building hardware our contractors could never dream of?”
“Yes.” said Coulson with a hint of amusement, looked at his watch one more time, and then stood, just as the viewscreen lit up. SHIELD’s emblem flashed on the screen, followed by a shield-shaped insignia with a large X and the words “Vigilo Confido”. The screen flickered, and then an unassuming man in a green sweater with a major general’s stars on his shoulder, but no recognizable uniform, appeared. He wore a headset and a stoic expression. Rhodes instinctively saluted, but the man shook his head.
“We don’t do that here, Colonel. This is a SHIELD operation.” he said. He looked over Barton and Rhodes with an appraising eye, then spoke.
“My name is Major General John Bradford, and in the context of this operation I am Central Officer Bradford. This is the XCOM project, a division of SHIELD devoted to maintaining, training and deploying rapid response teams to alien activity across the globe. Agents Coulson and Barton have firsthand experience with alien life. Main Street; Puente Antiguo, New Mexico; last year.” An image of a tall, blond, muscular man with a hammer flashed on screen for a moment, then a video: that same man flying effortlessly through the air, a tornado forming out of what had moments before been a clear blue sky, and a large, mechanical humanoid launching blasts of yellow energy. He deflected them with the hammer, and shortly afterwards the wind seemed to lift the mechanical entity into the sky. Then, a deafening boom, and a massive explosion among the thunderclouds which had spontaneously come into existence above the street. The video cut out.
“Colonel Rhodes, you were not present for the Puente Antiguo battle, but allow me to confirm now,” the man said, returning to the screen, “that what you just saw is not a hoax, is not doctored footage. That entity, who refers to himself as Thor, is an alien creature of personal power dwarfing the offensive capabilities of modern armour, and he is part of a race of such creatures.” He paused to let his words sink in. “He survived that explosion. He is not the only extraterrestrial creature we have confirmed to exist. The specific evidence of other extraterrestrials is classified but understand that what we may be facing is a galaxy full of more advanced species and civilizations. Not all of them will be friendly.”
The camera followed him through a control room featuring a massive holographic globe, and down a staircase into what appeared to be a laboratory, with blinking lights and workstations, and at the far end of the room, a circular housing with an entrancing blue glow emanating from the center, long tubes running from it towards what appeared to be a dais, complete with steps, and surrounded by large rectangular panels, tapered at both ends. A low thrumming could be heard in the background of the video feed- and it certainly wasn’t the Quinjet’s engines. He looked to Agent Coulson, trying to communicate a question- “What’s that?”- but he shook his head and gestured to his watch- “Not yet.”
A steely-eyed, handsome woman in an immaculate lab coat, holding a clipboard in her hands, turned from looking at one of the myriad screens that dotted the lab area and descended a set of steps to stand next to Bradford. She looked at the new recruits with apprehension and judgement. Rhodes adjusted himself slightly, perfecting his posture unconsciously under her withering gaze.
Bradford gestured to the glowing device at the back of the room. “As you may already be aware, the Tesseract is the source of much of our planned technology, with which we intend to reach equal footing with our interstellar visitors. The leader of our science effort is Dr. Moira Vahlen,” he turned his head towards her, “a scientist from the Humboldt University in Berlin, and one of Europe’s leading experts on... “ He looked at a piece of paper in his hand. “Biochemistry, particle physics, materials science, mechanical and energy engineering, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.” Vahlen looked directly at the recruits again, seemingly about to continue the presentation, but instead turned to Bradford and said “Those strange readings we’ve been picking up from the Tesseract are not stopping. I’ve told Dr. Zhang to inform Director Fury while Selvig and I try to figure out what’s going on.”
A flicker of disappointment crossed Bradford’s face at the mention of Fury’s name. “If you’re sure, Doctor.” he said. “I’m always sure.” said Vahlen. Rhodes couldn’t tell whether her accent was French, German or something else entirely. Bradford, stern-faced, turned back to the camera. “Rookies,” he said, “I’ll deliver the rest of the introductions when you’re on the ground. For now, my job is to put the base on alert. These readings, though Vahlen assures me they are anomalous and worthy of concern, will not interfere with your flight plan.” Barton frowned slightly. The video feed cut off. Coulson’s head snapped towards the others and he smirked slightly. “Fury’s going to love this.” he said.
“Why?” Rhodes asked, confused. “And what the hell is a Tesseract, anyway?” he continued.
“The Tesseract,” said Barton, “is an alien artifact recovered by SHIELD shortly after the Second World War. It’s the first of its kind, Vahlen and Erik Selvig are the top experts on its effects, though no one’s completely sure what it does, and-” He looked at Coulson, who was nodding along with his words, “It’s got some sort of connection with Thor, the alien you just saw blow up a robot the size of a small house.” He said all this quite matter-of-factly. Rhodes was getting used to the oddity of the situation already.
“It’s a source of potentially limitless energy and there’s some evidence it can create gates between points in space. HYDRA, a rogue Nazi organization, also used the Tesseract to create energy weapons, which is why it’s underneath a SHIELD military research facility and we have Fury’s protege Bradford keeping a close eye on it. Usually, Barton’s there too, but he came with me to pick you up, at Bradford’s insistence.” Coulson said.
“But why is Fury going to be happy his… secret alien artifact is doing what it’s doing?” asked Rhodes.
“He’s not. I’m sure he’ll be very concerned about that. But he’ll be thrilled that Central needs his help. Central was Fury’s protege for years. He was a lot like you, Department of Defense guy, best of the best, signed on with us to protect the American people. Found himself in deep- not saying you’ll find yourself in deep, of course- but made the most of it. XCOM wasn’t his idea but he became its champion. The biggest thing he ever did that Fury didn’t tell him to.” Coulson said, still smiling slightly. “And now he’s calling Fury for help.”
There was another pause. “Come on,” said Coulson, “don’t tell me that’s not at least a little funny.”
Hawkeye nodded begrudgingly. “And they say the Air Force is unprofessional.” Rhodes said, shaking his head. “You’ll get used to it.” said Coulson. “Fury runs a tight ship, chain of command is ironclad, but at SHIELD, we don’t pay much attention to Department of Defense rules. They’re stifling. Cut off the air flow. You’ve got to let your agency breathe, you know?”
“Not sure if I do.” said Rhodes. “You know who you sound like? Tony Stark.”
Coulson smiled more broadly. “I wish I were Tony Stark. I’d retire to Tahiti, and spend the rest of my life drinking mai tais and playing snooker. But unfortunately, some of us have to work for a living.” He looked at his watch again and sat down. “Descent’s starting,” he said, as the others followed his lead. “Might as well turn your eyes to the front. The Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility was a sight to behold even before it became XCOM HQ.”
Just past the pilots’ shoulders, Rhodes could see buildings, loud and incandescent, artificial light asserting itself in the evening darkness, surrounded by ant-black swarms of cars and vans, secret and silent as the agents within. As the facilities glowed and resisted the dark, the fields of barely-visible satellite dishes and solar panels behind them embraced it. He couldn’t tell where they ended and the surrounding hillscape began. “What are all those dishes for?” he asked. “Keeping up that real-time world map Bradford’s got down there?” “Yes,” said Coulson, “among other things. This is an astronomical research facility, after all.”
Soon, they had touched down on the runway outside the facility- poorly maintained and staffed, Rhodes noticed. It almost seemed like an afterthought. “I’m assuming this runway is due for renovation?” he said, as the jet struck a particularly harsh bump. As they came to a stop, Coulson shook his head. “We’re switching to VTOL and an underground, shielded hangar bay. Bradford could explain the reasons better than I could. There’ll be plenty of time for questions once you’re settled in here.”
They descended through armoured gates that opened in stages, down massive, echoing concrete hallways. They passed by rooms with arcane designations and yet more arcane hazard symbols on the doors. Coulson led them through a laboratory, white and blue, lines clean and streamlined, packed with scientists poring over what was, from what Rhodes could gather, a vast electronic database. There was a large transparent cylinder in the laboratory, with circular pads on robotic arms, moving to and fro, up and down, in what appeared to be a diagnostic test. “What’s that?” Rhodes asked quietly. “Vahlen’s interrogation chamber. Adapted from one we built to trap the Hulk.” Coulson replied. Rhodes took a closer look as he passed by. As they left the lab, he asked “Did you ever use it?” with a hint of excitement. Coulson shook his head.
Coulson led them into a massive engineering bay with assembly lines and robots, dormant and unblemished, shiny and new. A few technicians and engineers were standing around looking nervous, speaking in hushed tones. One was showing a page in his notebook to two of his colleagues, pointing at scribbles and diagrams and speaking rapidly. Rhodes could only hear a few words. “There’s no way. Selvig fixed that problem, the cube’s stable. Trust me, it’s an equipment failure, false positive, we’ve got nothing to-”
The next door that opened led into the huge room they had seen earlier. Bradford turned to Coulson as the three entered. “Coulson. Rookies. I wish I could welcome you to XCOM under better circumstances.” he said. “We’re looking at a possible activation event.”
Coulson nodded somberly. “And that would entail…?” he asked.
“We’re not sure. Selvig, Shen, what are you seeing now?”
Two middle-aged men were standing in front of a view screen at the back of the room; one balding, Chinese and wearing a green jacket and pressed shirt and one Nordic, from the accent, and wearing a wrinkled lab coat. The one in the lab coat said “She’s misbehaving.”
“What do you mean, ‘misbehaving’?”, Central asked, annoyed.
“He means,” said the Chinese man, “that it’s emitting levels of gamma radiation higher than ever before. I recommend we shut down the machine.”
“I understand the safety concerns, Doctor, but this could be a vital research opportunity. It has never emitted harmful levels of radiation before. Let it activate.” Vahlen said decisively.
“We’re not authorized to go to the testing phase yet. Bradford, it is my professional opinion that if the Tesseract activates, it could release a substantial portion of the energy contained within. The consequences could be catastrophic, and any action we take to influence it could make them even more catastrophic. I recommend we shut it down.” the Chinese man said.
Bradford turned to Vahlen. “Dr. Vahlen, this is a SHIELD operation and I am giving the orders.” She nodded, but her expression betrayed frustration. He looked at the Chinese man. “Shut it down, Shen.” he said.
Shen pressed a button on the screen. The lights on the housing turned off and the humming that filled the room stopped. Rhodes became suddenly aware of how loud it had been. A few seconds later, it returned, followed by the lights. Shen looked at the screen and his eyes widened. “What’s going on?” Bradford asked, looking back from the Tesseract to make eye contact with him.
“She’s turning the housing back on,” Selvig said, “she’s an energy source. What we are seeing is… behaviour, it is not a malfunction. Shen is right, we ought to evacuate. We are still not sure what it will do.”
“Could it be someone in the facility? Is it being tampered with?” Bradford asked.
“If it’s being tampered with, it’s not from this side.” said Vahlen.
“From this side?” said Bradford.
“Yes. It’s a doorway, its activation will mean the opening of… a gate. It is entirely possible that there are other such artifacts. In any case, we should not overlook the possibility something is interfering on the other side of that opening.”
Bradford gestured to Agent Coulson. “Get on the intercom, call red alert, get a security team down here ASAP, have everyone else coordinate a full evacuation. Phase 2 technology should have priority for extraction. Fury’s on the way.” He sighed. “When he gets here, we’ll decide what to do.”
“Who’s leaving?” asked Shen.
“You, the rest of the engineering team, Vahlen’s staff, most of the on-site agents, all non-essential personnel. Selvig, Vahlen, you’re the leading experts on this thing. Do what you can to try to shut it down.”
Coulson glided out of the room and moments later it was his voice on the intercom, ordering a general evacuation of all non-essential personnel. Rhodes looked around at the scientists and engineers filing out of the room, barely-contained panic in their eyes, escorted by black-clad agents. Barton remained stoic but eyed the Tesseract cautiously. Shen was the last to leave, with a pointed look back at Bradford. Selvig was muttering to himself in Norwegian and checking and re-checking every screen he could see. Bradford was grimacing impatiently and clearly itching to have something concrete to deal with. It was Vahlen that unsettled Rhodes the most. That icy stare was now directed at the Tesseract. It was difficult to tell what she was thinking.
“Should we be armed here?” Rhodes said, worried. Barton drew a pistol from his belt without looking and handed it to him. “Take this. I’m going to the armory, if Vahlen’s right we could be looking at extraterrestrials, and I’m not taking any chances.” He left, his fists clenched.
Bradford’s eyes darted around the room, ensuring everyone was doing their job. He kept returning to Vahlen, who was staring in fascination at one of the view screens. “Vahlen, have you got something?” he asked, approaching her.
“According to the gateway hypothesis, which I maintain is better supported than any other, the cube is focusing energy to open a spatial conduit. My very educated guess is that it won’t cause permanent damage to spacetime, but it ought to bring somewhere else to here.”
“That’s all well and good, Doctor, but can you stop it?”
“We can’t disrupt the power. Indeed, it’s not even using the housing anymore. Whoever is activating it- and I do believe it is being activated, Central Officer- has us trapped. Regardless of what Shen said, it is not going to explode.” She paused for a moment, a look of moderate concern on her face. “If my hypothesis is correct.”
“Reassuring.” said Bradford. “Selvig, any dissenting opinions?” he said loudly.
“I do not know what is going on. The energy buildup appears to be growing logarithmically and is reaching something of a plateau. If it is going to activate, it is about to do so.” Selvig was pressing buttons, trying to shut the machines down, and failing. Vahlen, her expression a mix of apprehension and excitement, stared at the dais.
As Barton re-entered the room with a security team, the Tesseract glowed a bright blue and currents of energy began swirling around the side facing them. A blue-black beam came hurtling forth from the cube with a mighty whoosh and a circular gate opened. On the other side, there was only nothingness discernable, the same terrible colour as the beam which had wrought it, and then it collapsed, a shockwave rocked the room and the energy travelled up the walls, and the cube fell silent. Clouds of gas rose from the dais. A few small brown rocks were scattered around it. In the middle of where the gate had been crouched a man in what appeared to be some sort of trench coat and a set of ornate bracers. A rod with a menacing hooked tip, set with a glowing blue gem, was in his hand. A wicked smile faded from his face as he began to stand. The security team rushed forward, guns drawn.
Barton nocked an arrow. Rhodes did a double take to make sure his fellow XCOM recruit was really using a bow in the 21st century, then trained his gun on the intruder and turned the safety off. The other security agents followed suit. “I’m going to have to ask you to put down the spear.” Bradford said firmly. The man looked disappointed and perhaps tired. He looked at the weapon in his hand, and for a moment it seemed almost like he was surprised to be holding it. Then, in a swift and violent motion he thrust it forth and a cyan energy blast shot forth from the tip, tearing through one of Bradford’s soldiers before any of them could react.
The sound of gunfire filled the chamber. The lithe, dark shape of the man flew through the air towards one of the agents, bullets ricocheting off his chest, and he buried a knife in the soldier’s neck. He turned, and before the other agents could get a bead on him he threw more knives, which found their marks perfectly. Barton turned, lightning-quick, and launched an arrow. With inhuman reflexes, the man brought his scepter up to block it and it split with an audible crack, the pieces deflected to the side. Rhodes finished turning and fired, grazing the man’s head. For a split second, the scepter came in contact with his chest and the gun fell from his hands. The other agents barely had time to register his stunned state before another energy blast dropped the agent closest to Bradford. As Barton nocked another arrow, the man roughly pulled Rhodes between himself and the archer, using him as a shield for a split second while turning to fire an energy blast at the agent near Vahlen. It missed, as he wasn’t looking at his target but at the one man who still had a clear line of fire, and struck the Doctor- there was a burst of orange light and it seemed to bounce off her, flying upwards and impacting on the ceiling with a shower of sparks. She collapsed. The agent he’d missed fired several shots, center of mass, as he obliterated the agent standing next to Bradford before turning, aiming, and finding his mark with the second shot.
There was a pause. The man whispered something to Rhodes. Bradford’s mind was racing- could he reach an exit, or a firearm, before this alien shot him? Did he have any hope of stopping this here, or escaping? It dawned on him that he was at the mercy of the man with the scepter. Rhodes turned and rushed at Barton, who stepped back in surprise. He dropped his bow as Rhodes began to grapple with him, pinning him to the Tesseract housing before the shock of his initial advance had worn off. His eyes were black, but quickly returning to normal. Barton could do little but desperately try to make room, struggling for a few seconds and nearly managing to push Rhodes away before the scepter touched his chest as well. Both Rhodes and Barton stepped away from the housing and scanned the room. Bradford looked at them in alarm, shock and growing anger.
“What have you done to my recruits?” he asked, his posture still ramrod straight and his face betraying little of his frustration. The man with the scepter raised it and Bradford flinched, expecting to meet the same fate as the others. A contemplative look crossed the alien visitor’s face and he lowered the scepter. “I am Loki,” he said, “and your recruits belong to me now.”
“Thor’s brother!” Selvig said in shocked recognition. “The god of…” He fell silent as Loki glared at him angrily. “Bring him to me.” Loki said to Rhodes, who immediately strode towards Selvig and grabbed him roughly by the arm.
“If you’re Loki, you’re Asgardian.” Bradford said. “We have no quarrel with your people.” Loki’s eyes widened. “An ant has no quarrel with a boot. And besides, what is your motto, exactly?” he asked. His tone was condescending.
“Vigilo Confido.” said Rhodes.
“That’s not the motto,” Bradford said, “we just put that on the badges because it sounds cool. It’s not even real Latin. No, what I have to say to you is Caelum spectamus armati.”
“ ‘Armed, we watch the sky?’ That doesn’t sound very peaceful.” Loki said with a venomous edge to his voice.
“But it’s sure as hell justified, if you’re any indication.” Bradford replied.
Rhodes returned with Selvig. Loki tapped the scepter to his chest and his eyes turned black as his will was bent. “Now,” he said with barely-contained satisfaction, “we conquer. Scientist, take the Tesseract out of your primitive machine.”
“There doesn’t have to be any more bloodshed.” Bradford said, trying to look and sound intimidating. “That’s XCOM property, and god or not, I will stop you.”
Loki cracked a smile. Rhodes shot Bradford, who collapsed.
“Excuse me,” said Selvig, unfazed, “but the portal is overloading. It activated before it was ready and the resulting energy is unstable. I would conservatively estimate that this facility will be destroyed in under ten minutes. We ought to flee.” Loki turned to Rhodes. “I know who you are. Where is the suit?”
“Same place as our escape route,” Rhodes said. “It’s probably still on the Quinjet.”
Loki nodded in satisfaction. “Excellent.” he said.
Coulson’s last broadcast over the PA system was a general order to immediately evacuate without regards for data or materiel preservation. About a minute later, he entered the chamber, weapon drawn. There was no sign of Loki or the others. Bradford was staggering to his feet, his vest clearly having saved his life. To Coulson’s surprise, Vahlen was standing and typing at one of the computers, downloading what appeared to be dozens of files onto a USB drive.
“We’ve got to get out of here, sir.” Coulson said. “This place is about to-”
“Explode, I know.” said Bradford. They both looked in slight confusion at Vahlen. “Didn’t you-” Coulson began, but Vahlen cut him off. “He missed me.” she said curtly. “I’m downloading the Tesseract research files, including the activity logs from what just happened.”
Coulson helped Bradford to his feet. Vahlen pulled the USB out of its slot as the last files finished downloading. Central’s hand went to the side of his head and he began speaking over his headset as the three left the room. “Director Fury, Agent Barton and Colonel Rhodes have been…” he hesitated for a moment, “Mind controlled by an alien who resembles a human being. He’ll be carrying a glowing staff. Dr. Selvig is with them, they have the Tesseract.”
Fury’s voice, masked by the steady whir of his helicopter’s blades, came over the headset in response. “What do you mean, they have the Tesseract?”
“The alien is presently holding it. They’re headed for a Quinjet on the runway.”
“Aw, shit.” Fury said. He switched channels on his walkie-talkie. “This is the Director to all SHIELD agents present on the runway, do not, I repeat, do not let anyone board the Quinjet. We are at Defcon One here, people, the Tesseract has been stolen by an extraterrestrial entity.”
His words echoed from the earpieces of dead men and women. Fury watched helplessly as the Quinjet sailed up the tarmac and rocketed into the clear sky. He watched horrified, minutes later, from a safe distance as the facility itself was enveloped in a dome of blue energy and then collapsed in on itself, leaving ruins behind where the flagship project of XCOM once stood.
He turned to Agent Hill as the helicopter landed. “Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for the Tesseract.” He stepped out onto the sand and stared at the thick plumes of smoke rising from the facility, and the bright flames burning in the shattered rubble.
“Agent Coulson, do you read me?” he said.
“Yes, sir.” came the muffled response over the radio.
“This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war. Get back to base, take Central with you.”
“What do we do?” asked Coulson, concerned.
Fury’s eyes were fixed on the wreckage. He thought for a moment, then looked up, hope in his eye. He nodded to himself.
“You know what I’m going to say.” he said. “Tell Central he put up a hell of a fight.”
Coulson looked at Bradford, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the SHIELD truck. Bradford sighed. “He’s assembling the Avengers, isn’t he?” he said, defeated. Coulson nodded.