Monsters // Black Widow

Four

My body was cold and aching all over, fire ran through my veins. It became more tolerable by the hour, but still hurt like hell. I see Nat walk into my room with her rations and water. "(I don't know how you did it.)" I tell her through gritted teeth. "(Took me a couple of days.. But I didn't have anyone to help me out.)" She sets the rations down at my side table and sits at the foot of my cot. "(Before we could see each other out of trainings. They wanted us as enemies.)" I remind her. "(And here we are working and growing side by side.)" I glance at the rations, "(Those are yours, I don't want-)"
"You need them." She says firmly in english making me pause. "I don't need them as much as you." I only stared at her, reluctant to pick up the wrapped sandwich.
She just lets out a sigh before grabbing it for me and handing it to me. "(Take it.)" I only looked in her eyes, that was her food for the day. "(Please.)" She begs quietly, I can see worry in her eyes. I reach with a shaky hand, pain shooting through my arm as I tried to concentrate on grabbing the food. "(Stop..)" She lays my arm back down before unwrapping and leading the sandwich to my mouth for me to take a bite. "(This totally isn't degrading.)" I complain with a full mouth but she only chuckles as she helps with drinking water next.
Nat was the only person I had.
I wouldn't be as strong as I am today if it weren't for her.

I sit at the table with the screen on an empty cell in the middle of us. I feel like what the man put in my pocket, I pull out a small crystal on a thin chain. Why carry something like this around? If it was so important to carry around, why give it to me? The sentiment was heartwarming and put it on with respect for the man who stood his ground. I hear footsteps going down the hallway; Dozens of SHEILD escort Loki, who is in handcuffs, smiling. It was eerie and uncomfortable but I've seen worse.
I watch the screen as Loki is now free from his cuffs and is contained in a large glass cell held by hydraulic rigs I helped design for.. other things. Fury walks up 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 almost looking as if he had no care in the world. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" Fury finishes before closing the hatch.
He points at Loki, "Ant.." Then points at the button which would drop Loki into the steel trap. "Boot."
I watch Loki's actions and reactions closely in case of an interrogation. He only smirks at the comment. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."
"Built for something a lot stronger than you."
"Oh, I've heard." I crease my eyebrows slightly at how he sort of lit up at the insinuation of someone stronger. Loki looks into the camera.
The others watch on the monitor with me of Loki getting interrogated. I glance up to see Banner watching intently.
"The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki says to Fury. I can see the comment struck a nerve so I really wish I could go in there.
"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."
"Ooh." Loki snaps back, "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 walks off leaving Loki in his glass cell. Loki looks back at the camera, smirking, but I just smirk back.
The monitor goes black. Thor, who didn't even look, just listened, stands there, torn apart. We all just stand there in stunned in silence.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner points out. "Loves to play the mysterious, misunderstood type, doesn't he." I smirk at Thor.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asks Thor who had seemed to be stunned, but came back too.
"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 asks seriously.
"Awesome." I say under my breath as I lean back in my chair.
"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Banner throws out there. "Selvig?" Thor asks surprised. "He's an astrophysicist. Another smarty pants." I explained for the god. "He's a friend." Thor says concerned. 
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha brings up as her and I glance at each other.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." I point out confused but still connecting the dots from the tape. I grab a tablet as I forward through the tape, reading his movements.
"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 brings up.
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor says offended.
"He killed eighty people in two days." I point out not looking up from the tablet. "..He's adopted." Thor answers back a bit embarrassed.
"I think it's about the mechanics." Banner starts a tangent, "Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent."
"It's a stabilizing agent." I say at the same time as a louder voice of the big ego'd Tony Stark walks in with Coulson. "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive." He finished his conversation with him. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He points out with a cocky attitude. "No hard feelings, Point Break." He says to Thor, "You've got a mean swing... Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He then starts to order the crew, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." I tilt my head in confusion of his self-pride. Covering his eye, he looks around at the screens. "How does Fury do this?"
"He turns." Hill answers giving me a smirk.
"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."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" I ask from my seat. He walks away from Fury's desk and to me. "Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" He asks the group before looking at me. "Seems you knew your way around enough too." He says to me.
I just shrug, "I do my reading."
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asks in his same serious tone.
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." I state before looking back down at the tablet to watch Loki.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony adds in.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner chimes to the conversation.
"Finally, some people who speaks English." I feel a hand on my shoulder as he places the other on Banner. "Hand off please." I tell him before he moves to shake hands with Bruce.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asks the rest of the group confused.
"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." Tony says as they formally meet.
"Thanks." Bruce says almost let down by the last sentence.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury walks in to join us, "I was hoping you might join him."
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve brings up.
"I don't know about that, 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."
"Monkeys? I do not understand.." Thor states confused but, "I do!" Steve shouts excitedly, "I understood that reference."
Tony rolls his eyes, while Cap looks proud of himself.
"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony asks Bruce. "Let's play some." As Banner and Tony walk out, Fury comes up to me as I set the tablet down because of no difference in mood since Fury left him.
"I know you saw something I didn't in there." I look up at him from my chair, "I think it's your turn to give his brain a try."