Things We Lost - Bucky Barnes Fanfic

12. We All Have Our Problems

The three heroes brought the man and Loki back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. They learned that the Asgardian they were fighting is named Thor Odinson and is Loki's brother. Steve and Jessie sat in the debriefing room with Doctor Banner, Thor, Agent Hill, and Natasha. They just finished taking a look at Nick confronting with Loki. Jessie was inspecting the damage of her cybernetic arm, trying to find a way on how to fix it.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner asked after the screen went black. Steve looked up.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," he stated. He looked to Thor. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor replied after coming back from his daze. "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?"

"So he's building another portal," Bruce began saying, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend." 

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha said, referring to Agent Barton. Jessie could tell the red head was saddened with the thought of her friend being gone.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Jessie spoke up staring at the table she sat at. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce said. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"I don't care how you speak," Thor said. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha stated.

"He's adopted."

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Jessie asked herself but out loud. Tony walked in speaking with Coulson.

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony said to Jessie as he walked in with Coulson. He began speaking to Coulson, the others hearing. "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive." Tony then looked to Jessie and continued to answer her question. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." He walked by Thor and over to the computer station where Fury stands.

"No hard feelings, Point Break," he said to Thor as he walked by, patting him on the arm, "You've got a mean swing." He stood between the computers and turned to look at Jessie. "Also, it mean the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants." He turned to the ship's crew. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He the covered his eye looking around. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Agent Hill replied. Tony walked around the monitors, placing a button sized hacking device on one without people noticing.

"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?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Jessie shook her head.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

"He got to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce replied.