LIGHTNING STORM |b. barnes| [2]

CHAPTER 03

ONCE THE JET COLLECTED THEM,  they were brought back to the main helicarrier. Everyone gathered in the briefing room and watched and listened to Fury speaking to Loki, who was placed in a cage. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki stated with a smirk,

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury replied

"Oh, I've heard." Loki said, looking into the camera, "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." Ana knew he was talking about Banner, who looked down in shame, "How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" He asked,

"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,

"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." Loki replied,

Fury smiled, "Well, you let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something." He said before leaving,

They all sat there, stunned until Bruce spoke up, "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve said before turning to Thor, "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"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." Thor replied,

"An army? From outer space?" Steve asked seriously,

"Like... aliens?" Jacq questioned,

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

"Selvig?" Thor questioned

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce explained,

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said with a hint of sadness in her voice. Ana placed her hand on Natasha's shoulder, giving her some comfort. Barton was her friend, too.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve stated,

"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." Bruce replied

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor defended,

"He killed eighty people in two days." Ana stated, her eyebrows raised and Thor looked away, "He's adopted."

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce questioned

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony answered, walking in with Coulson and saying something to him before turning back to the others, "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." Tony turned to Thor and patted his bicep, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Tony turned to the crew from where Fury usually stands, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the topsails." He pointed to a man, "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He covered his eye and looked around at the screen, "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns." Agent Hill answered,

"Well, that sounds exhausting." He commented before returning to the subject at hand, "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?" Agent Hill asked,

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked, walking back over,

"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." Banner answered,

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

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner continued,

Ana watched the two speak, not having a clue what they were talking about. But that's what happens when you bring two of the smartest men in the world into one room. But Ana would never tell Tony that, his head was big enough as it is.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony smirked and Steve looked over at Jacq,

"Is that what just happened?"