THREE
TO SAY THE ROOM WAS TENSE would be an understatement. It was nighttime and they were all on the quinjet, including the newest prisoner Loki. Not only was the Trickster's presence making the room tense, but the awkwardness between Stark and Rogers was making it uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Hope was forced to stay with Steve and Tony to be the mediator if something were to happen, Shield knew all too well what could come out of a conflict between the two superheroes.
"I don't like it" Steve finally spoke, though using a quiet voice, looking over at the two. "What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony mocked the man.
"I don't remember it being ever that easy. This guy packs a wallop" Hope looked at him in confusion of his word choices. "Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?" Tony teased, although Steve wasn't understanding what he was referencing to.
"Stark" Hope warned, knowing that Steve wasn't gonna appreciate the constant references of things that he didn't understand. "It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle" The two men looked over at Hope who chuckled quietly at the nickname, though they had heard it.
"What? It was funny" She defended, making Tony smirk in triumph. Steve cleared his throat before continuing. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in" Tony didn't really care for the conversation anymore, clearly bored.
"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you" Thunder and lightning shook the plane, the lightning nearly hit the jet which made it shake violently. "It wasn't me, I swear" Hope defended herself when a few agents looked over at her in suspicion.
Steve noticed how Loki was intently looking out the window, almost in a fearful way. "What's wrong? Scared of a little lightning?" Steve inquired. Loki made eye contact with the solider. "I'm not overly fond of what follows" Hope's eyes widened in realization. Thunder, lighting, that all connects to one thing; Thor. She knew about Thor both through the reports of New Mexico and the stories her aunts, uncles, and father told her. They had grown up on Norse mythology, they knew and relayed the stories they were taught as children.
There was a large noise coming from the outside roof of the quinjet, startling everyone. It startled everyone, even more, when Thor practically pride open the ramp, stomped in, grabbed Loki by the throat, and flew out of the quinjet.
Everyone was left dumbstruck for a minute before Tony put on his helmet. "Another Asgardian?" Natasha shouted to the three. "I think it's Thor" Hope replied, starting to gear up as well.
"Think the guy's friendly?" Steve asked the group, not knowing much about the mythology behind the gods. "Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost" Tony made his way to the exit that Thor left through.
"Our records show that he's friendly" Hope mumbled to Steve who sent her a thankful smile before noticing that Stark was about to fly out of the quinjet as well. "Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Tony was disinterested in the soldiers' opinion.
"I have a plan, attack!" Tony shouted back before flying out of the quinjet in his iron man suit. "Are you kidding me?" She mumbled to herself, wishing that she would've been allowed to stay back with Bruce Banner instead of dealing with this mess.
Hope and Steve's eyes met. "You take Loki, he wants to be captured, he won't put up a fight. I'll take care of the two boys having a pissing match" Steve didn't argue with her, trusting the younger agent's plan.
Steve grabbed himself a parachute, Natasha noticed that the two were going to follow Stark and had to intervene. "I'd sit this one out, Cap, Dove" She advised. "I don't see how we can" Steve commented, hooking himself to the parachute.
"These guys come from legends, they're basically gods" Natasha warned, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stop Hope but she could prevent Steve from getting in the middle of things.
"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that" Steve said before jumping out of the quinjet.
Hope didn't need a parachute so she jumped out of the quinjet without one, using her magic to guide her to where Tony and Thor were.
Hope couldn't help but scowl at the destruction the two had caused while fighting. "Hey!" Her voice was ignored by the two men who continued to fight, only making her growl lowly in annoyance.
"I said, hey!" Using her magic, she forcefully separated the two, getting them to look at her. "That's enough" She moves closer to them. Tony looked a bit more relaxed now that he had backup, while Thor still looked angry.
"I don't know what you think you're doing here" Thor glared at her. "I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" He replied in his powerful tone that would send most into a state of fear. Thor didn't scare her, though. She had fought against a creature a lot older than him that possessed her body, and she won. Thor wasn't as powerful as the Hollow, she could handle him.
"Then prove it, prove that you're not here to do the same thing your brother has done. Put the hammer down" She barked the order, not backing down from his dark look.
"Um, yeah, no! Bad call, kid! He loves his hammer!" Tony was cut off when Thor used his hammer, Mjölnir, to backhand him and make him go flying. "You want me to put the hammer down?!" He yelled before going to attack her with said hammer.
The man leaped in the air before launching himself down in front of her to attack. Hope snarled, glowing her yellow wolf eyes before mumbling a spell. The spell made a forcefield around herself and Tony, the lightning bolt that came out of Mjölnir bounced back and attacked both Thor and the surrounding forests.
There was a bunch of debris for a moment before it cleared up. Hope let the forcefield down for both her and Tony, the billionaire got up, his impressed look hidden by the plate of his iron man suit. Thor stood up, not showing any emotions on his face.
"Are we done here? Cap went to go get Loki" Hope explained, her eyes narrowing as if she was threatening the god to try and attack again. "What is your name, young warrior," Thor asked the teen.
"Agent Hope Kenner" Thor smiled goofily, contradicting his actions previously. "You're a worthy opponent, lady Hope".
***
They had all made it back on the quinjet and then to the Helicarrier. They(not including Tony)were all put into a room together that had a screen so they could watch as Fury talked with Loki, who was in a fairly large glass cell.
"In case it's unclear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass" Fury pushed a button that opened a hatch right under where the cell was. Loki peered over the side to see what Fury was referencing to. He didn't look frightened, merely amused at the human's threats.
"Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" Fury pointed at the god. "Ant" Then he pointed at the button. "Boot" Loki was merely smirking at the man with the eyepatch.
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me" The trickster told him smugly. "Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury said, his facial expression emotionless as always. "Oh, I've heard" Loki looked directly into the camera, his eyes not wavering as he knew that the group Fury brought in were watching.
"The mindless beast makes play he's still a man. And the daughter of a true beast that holds more power than most" Bruce and Hope both tensed at Loki's words, Hope ignored the looks of confusion she got from the others. "How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" Fury only scoffed at his claim.
"How desperate am I? 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" Fury spat, only making Loki smirk.
"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" He taunted, only he too wanted the Tesseract, although for slightly different plans. Nick Fury fake smiles at the god who was trapped.
"Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something" Fury called out before walking away, leaving Loki in the glass cell. The god looked at the camera and smirked mischievously before the monitor showing the video feed was turned off.
Thor has refused to watch his brother, only listening to his brother's words, and even that tore him apart. To see his brother turn into somebody he never saw coming.
The stunned room of people was filled with utter silence until Bruce decided to speak up. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Hope fake smiled, though genuinely relieved that someone was trying to break the tension.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve got back into 'Captain America' mode, looking at the god who was finally snapping out of his sad look.
"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" Hope furrowed her eyebrows, confused on why Loki would even want to rule earth. Each being she's dealt with that wanted to rule anything or anyone always had a motive. So what was his?
"An army? From outer space?" Steve said incredulously. "So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for" Bruce thought out loud, capturing Thor's attention at the oh-so-familiar name.
"Selvig?" Thor repeated, thinking of the events that went down in New Mexico, how he missed Jane. "He's an astrophysicist" Thor felt this was personal, that Loki took one of the few humans that he was fond of. "He's a friend" Hope sent him an apologetic look.
"Loki has him under mind control along with one of our Agents, most likely caused by the Tesseract" Hope explained to the thunder god who nodded in appreciation.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here" Hope thought, not having any idea why because she hadn't seen someone do that unless it was to save someone they loved, Loki was obviously not doing that and planning something much more sinister.
"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" Thor shot a damning glare at the scientist. "Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother" His voice boomed throughout the room, clearly protective of his younger brother despite what he had done. This reminded Hope all too well of her Uncle Elijah, the man who spent a thousand years trying to save his malicious younger brother.
"He killed eighty people in two days" Natasha raised her head up, wondering how the god would defend his brother from that. "He's adopted" Hope held back her laugh, although not able to hide how her lips curved upwards.
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Stark, being Stark, made his grand entrance then. "It's a stabilizing agent" Behind Tony was Phil Coulson, the agent sent Hope a smile in which she returned.
"I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive" Tony told Phil before turning back to face the group of intense misfits. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD" Tony then noticed Thor. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing" Thor was confused about what the man was referencing. Tony just continued to ramble on about the Iridium.
"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants" Tony's short attention span was proven once again when he got distracted while watching all the many agents around them working on computers.
"Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the topsails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did" Hope's eyebrows rose in amusement while most of the group looked heavily annoyed with Tony's antics. It was a nice break for the agent to see someone with such amusing humor around the Helicarrier.
Tony stood in Fury's lookout spot, covering his eye and pretending to be the director. "How does Fury do this?" Agent Maria Hill looked at the billionaire. "He turns," Nobody noticed that, while fooling around and pretending to be Fury, Tony places a button-sized hacking implant under Fury's desk.
Tony turned to face them. "Well, that sounds exhausting" Tony then turned serious. "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" Tony spoke up, hyper-focused on the thing he knew best, science.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria inquired. "Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" He looked at the group accusingly.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve ignored the last conversation, trying to stay on track. "He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier" Hope blinked, not understanding anything that was happening. After all, the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted didn't teach much about science as it did with magic.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect" Bruce nodded at Tony's words, thinking hard. "Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet" Tony sighed in relief, looking happily at the scientist. "Finally, someone who speaks English" Steve looked at Hope, confused like a lost puppy.
"Is that what just happened?" Hope shrugged. "It's more of a geek language" The girl replied, watching in almost curiosity when Tony shook Bruce's hand, a glimmer of mutual respect both shined in each of their eyes.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled" Then Tony turned back into his childish ways. "And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster" This made Bruce look down, clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable at the mention of the 'other guy'.
"Thanks" He muttered. Fury walked into the room at exactly the right time. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him" He spoke to Tony who looked at Fury with a bit of disdain.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon" Hope felt bad for the soldier who wasn't used to modernized things, wondering how he'd handle a lot that was going to go down.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube" Fury's voice turned almost accusingly. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys" Thor looked confused at the mention of the creatures from the Wizard of Oz.
"Monkeys? I do not understand" The god frowned. "I do!" Steve chirped. "I understood that reference" Tony rolled his eyes dramatically in the background while Steve looked extremely proud of himself.
Tony turned to Bruce, enthusiastic to work with the well known gamma-radiation scientist. "Shall we play a game, Doctor?" Bruce nodded. "Let's play some" The two left the room, seemingly dismissing the rest of them.
***
Hope stopped in her room on the Helicarrier to change out of her combat suit. She put on a simple maroon sweater, dark jeans, and combat boots. She also let her auburn hair out of the bun that had gotten loose as they fought, falling down her shoulders in loose ringlets.
Her room on the Helicarrier was very simple and plain except for the framed pictures that littered on top of her dresser. A tear slipped from her eyes as she looked at the pictures. She missed her parents and her uncle. She missed the days when her family all lived in New Orleans together. She missed when Always and Forever actually meant something to them. As soon as her dad and uncle died, the oath was destroyed in the family.
"Always and Forever, until the bitter end," She mumbled to herself as she looked at the picture of her and her parents, wishing she could go back to the days when she was a little girl. When she could still be around both parents at the same time. When all she had to do was say their names and they would instantly be at her side.