Not An Avenger

Conflict

"What if he doesn't have the cube?" asked Agent Romanoff, as she and Captain Rogers were prepping to fly to Germany in one of the jets.

"Who would he give it to? He came here alone through that portal." Countered Rogers. He was wearing a red, white and blue outfit, which honestly looked more like a costume than a uniform. It was Agent Coulson's improvisation on his old uniform. Personally, I wasn't a fan.

"He obviously isn't working alone. He has that magic scepter that turns people into his slaves. He can give it to Agent Barton." She was obviously hurting. Agent Barton was one of the few people who were close to her, and now he was a personal performing monkey to Loki.

"Can you find Barton?" Captain Rogers asked me. This was the first time he was talking directly to me and I found myself at the loss of words.

"I....um.... If he has a trace, it is not detectable from here, I'll have to get the device closer." I stuttered.

He is a 100 years old and he is wearing a stupid costume. 100 years old. Stupid costume. I chanted to myself.

Still, I didn't think many people could carry that outfit the way he did.

"Then, you'll have to come with us." He said, in his commanding military voice.

"I don't believe I have a visa for Germany." I half-joked.

Though it wasn't funny, I saw a ghost of smile, playing at the corners of his lips as he walked away.

I don't think I can justifiably explain what happened in Germany, but let me try. Loki had gathered hundreds of civilians inside an auditorium and was giving them a show of his powers, threatening them. Pretty stupid, if you ask me. It was like he wanted to get caught.

He was just about to kill a civilian, when Captain swooped in and saved the day, just about. Loki turned out to be an equal match for him. They were throwing punches on each other when Tony arrived wearing his Iron man suit, making a rather dramatic entry. Loki surrendered seeing himself outnumbered and all was well in the world.

Except it wasn't. As Natasha had feared, Loki didn't have the Tesserect. And I was not able to trace out Barton.

Loki looked even more malicious than the last time I saw him. I was in New Mexico, about a year ago, where I had gone on a field assignment with Agent Coulson to the landing site of an UFO. (later it turned out to Thor's hammer.)

Loki had used his illusion to get past the security around the landing site and was trying to lift Thor's hammer. Somehow, I was able to see past his illusions and foolishly confronted him about his reason to be there. Being the arrogant 'god' he was, he took offence and tried to strangulate me with his hands. In desperation for life, I picked up the hammer and hit him. He vanished after that but his illusion was broken long enough for cameras to record his presence. A big fuss was mode over me able to lift the hammer when even heavy duty machines failed in the task.

That reminded me. Loki could vanish. Why didn't he use his teleportive powers this time?

I walked up to Tony, who was talking to Rogers (or rather trying to talk to him without insulting him, and miserably failing). Steve was too concentrated on watching guard over Loki and was barely listening to what he was saying.

He looked at me as I approached. "Any progress in finding the cube?" he asked.

I looked at Loki. Couldn't discuss strategy in front of the enemy.

He nodded acknowledgingly.

"Can I talk to Tony for a minute?'

"Don't need his permission for that." Tony interjected, already walking towards the other end of the jet.

I looked apologetically at Steve. He smiled at me, looking more relieved than he should.

"He can teleport." I said, as I approached Tony.

"Teleport?" He asked skeptically. He obviously hasn't had as much experience as I had with supernatural.

"He is here because he wants to be here, Tony. Those bondages can't hold him against his will."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ams. He is here because I would kick his as if he tries to escape. And there is no such thing as teleportation. Its scientifically impossible. Even his stick isn't magic. It's obviously some kind to high energy laser generator."

"A laser generator that can hypnotize people?"

"Why are we talking about this nutbag, anyway? I haven't seen you in three months." He said, pulling me into a hug. He obviously didn't have anything to counter me.

"I missed you." I told him, pulling away.

"Really? Didn't seem like it." He commented.

"Don't be so hard on her." Said Natasha, coming towards, putting the plane on autopilot. "SHIELD has very strict rules at research facilities. All the calls are monitored. I really enjoyed listening to whiny voice, Stark."

Tony was about to reply with something nasty, when something hit the roof of the jet.

"Is it a bird?" Steve called out from the other side of the plane.

"It's something much larger than a bird." Said Tony, opening the latch door on top.

And the god of thunder entered our jet.

He saw Loki and started walking towards him with a determined face. Tony tried to stop him but Thor pushed him aside like a rag doll, even in his Iron man suit.

Steve braced himself for a fight. Natasha was closing the latch door and stabilizing the plane.

"Thor." I called out, hoping he remembered me from the last time we met.

He turned towards me and bent down on his knee. "My lady, forgive me for this rude interruption."

Okay, he did remember me.

I heard Tony gear up his suit. "Stop." I told him. "There is no need for a fight. We'll talk this out."

He didn't stand down.

I sighed. This was going to be difficult.