Chapter Four

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The Quinjet flew through the darkening sky. Aquila sat up the back of the Quinjet, fully transformed back into a human woman. While Natasha was up the front manning the Quinjet, with Loki at the very back. 

Steve beckoned Aquila over once she had finished transforming, over to what Aquila presumed was to meet Tony Stark.

"Stark, this is Aquila Cadman."

"Tequila?" Tony asked, looking around. 

"Aquila." She clarified. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I think I'm just going to keep calling you Tequila for now. But you were the giant eagle, right?"

"Yep." 

"I don't like it." Steve suddenly whispered to Tony and Aquila.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony responded.

"I don't remember it ever being that easy. This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow," Tony said. "What's your thing? Pilates?"

"What?" Steve asked confused. 

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

Aquila tried to smother her small chuckle but from the look on Steve's face, he definitely heard her. 

"Well, I'm glad someone finds my jokes funny," Tony said. 

Steve continued with the conversation, ignoring Tony's previous statement. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

Lightning burst through the air, followed by deep rumbles of thunder, shaking the Quinjet slightly. 

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha asked as Loki looked out the nearby window.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked Loki. "Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki responded as more lightning erupted around them. 

A loud thump landed on the top of the Quinjet, shaking the entire flying vehicle. Tony didn't waste a second immediately putting his mask back on. 

A tall man with blonde hair suddenly appeared, grabbing Loki by the collar before flying out again. Everyone looked at the departing figure, dumbstruck.

"And now there's that guy." Iron Man said. 

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha shouted. 

"Think the guy's a friendly?" Captain America asked. 

"Doesn't matter." Iron Man said. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Iron Man started to move down the Quinjet to get ready to jump off the jet. 

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Captain America shouted at Iron Man.

"I have a plan. Attack." Iron Man said as he jumped out of the jet and chased after Thor. 

Captain America grabbed a parachute and his shield, preparing to follow. 

"I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha shouted at Captain America.

"I don't see how I can."

"These guys come from legends, they're basically gods."

Aquila found herself nodding in agreement with Natasha's words. 

Not listening to Natasha's advice, Captain America got ready to jump out. "There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Captain America jumped out of the Quinjet.

"Well, this is fun," Aquila said. 

"You going to, Aquila?" Natasha asked. 

"I'm going to sit this one out. Let all the men sort out their issues."

"By the way, you need a codename for your other form!" Natasha shouted at Aquila.

"What do you mean?"

"We can't call you 'Aquila' in battles."

"Ok, then. Do you have any suggestions?" Aquila asked. 

"What about Talons?" Natasha suggested. 

"Yeah, sure."

Aquila spun around in her chair, lazily as Captain America interrogated Thor about Loki's true intentions. However, their conversation was interrupted by Tony Stark arriving. 

"It means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

Most of the team looked over to Tony as most of what he was saying, none of them understood a single word. 

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

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Dr. Banner answered. 

"Unless Mr, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

I'm sorry, what?

"Finally, someone else who speaks English," Tony said, as Aquila rolled her eyes playfully. 

Tony walked over towards Dr. Banner. "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."

Dr. Banner looked down. "Thanks."

Nick Fury walked in. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve said. 

"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." Fury said. 

"Monkey? I do not understand." Thor said, confused as Aquila suppressed a smirk. 

"I do!" Steve said, pointing at Fury. "I understood that reference."

Aquila watched as Tony rolled his eyes before turning to Dr. Banner beside him. "Shall we play, doctor?"

"Let's play some." Banner replied. 





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