Artemis (Book 1)

Chapter Two

When they landed on the helicarrier, Thea went to the locker room, immediately followed by her brother. Alec walked into the locker room and saw Thea holding a bloody knife. "Whose blood is that?"
"Loki's. I thought that it could be of use."
"Do you think you can do it?"
"Maybe." Thea clasped her hands around the knife and closed her eyes. Alec watched as her veins glowed red. Her body began to tremble before she suddenly lurched forwards, panting. "I got glimpses, they're planning something. His eyes were the same colour as Loki's sceptre."
"So, if we destroyed the sceptre, would it stop the mind control?"
"I don't think it's possible to destroy the sceptre. I can sense a lot of power coming from the sceptre. It's like nothing I've ever felt before, It scares me."
 
Thea was sat with Natasha, Steve, Bruce and Thor listening to Nick Fury talking to Loki, who had been locked up. "In case it's unclear; you try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass." Fury pressed a button on the control pannel, which opened up a hatch underneath Loki's cell. Loki peered down at the hatch and, to Thea, it seemed as if a plan was forming inside his head.  "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury closed the hatch and pointed at Loki. "Ant." Fury then pointed at the control pannel. "Boot."
"It's an impressive cage." Loki said, unaffected by what Fury had done and said. "Not built, I think, for me."
"Built for something a lot stronger than you."
"Oh, I've heard." Loki looked up at the camera, knowing he is being watched. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"
How desperate am I? You threaten my world with way. 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, 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, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something." Fury said, leaving.
 
Thea looked between everyone in the briefing room. Steve was sat watching the screen. Natasha looked indifferent. Bruce looked uncomfortable from the other guy being mentioned. The worse was Thor, who looked torn apart. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce commented.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked.
"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 explained, turning to them.
"An army? From outer space?" Steve questioned.
"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce said.
"Selvig?" Thor inquired.
"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce informed.
"He's a friend." Thor corrected.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha informed.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve said. "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."
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor warned.
"He killed eight people in two days." Natasha told him.
"He's adopted."
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce questioned.
"It's a stabilising agent." Tony replied as he walked in with Coulson. He said something to Coulson before turning back to the others. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Tony walked towards Thor. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." Tony hit Thor in his arm before walking past. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants. Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails." The last part confused everyone for a moment. "That man is playing Galaga." Tony said pointing to an agent who quickly hid the game. "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He covered his eye and tried to look at the monitors. "How does Fury do this?"
"He turns." Maria Hill said.
"Well, that sounds exhausting." Tony said as he placed a hacking implant under Fury's desk. Thea seemed to be the only one who noticed. "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 in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.
"Last night." Tony replied. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"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 informed.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect." Tony said.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner commented.
"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony said.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve questioned.
"It's good to meet you, Dr Banner." Tony said, shaking Bruce's hand. "You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a hug fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
"Thanks." Bruce said, feeling uncomfortable.
"Dr Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury informed walking in. "I was hoping you might join him."
"Let's start with that stick of his." Steve spoke up. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury said. "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?" Thor questioned confused. "I do not understand."
"I do!" Steve exclaimed. "I understood that reference." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony questioned Bruce.
"Let's play some." Tony and Bruce headed for the lab. Thea soon followed.
"Dr Banner, can I ask a favour?" Thea asked, walking with the Science Bros.
"Sure."
"Would you be able to run a blood sample for me? Just in the background whilst you work on the sceptre."
"Whose blood is it?"
"Mine. Since I was a kid, there's been something wrong with me and I was hoping that a blood test could give me some answers."
"Okay, let's go to the lab."
"Thank you, Dr Banner, I really appreciate this."
"It's not problem."
 
Thea looked up at the ceiling as Bruce drew blood. She always had a weird relationship with needles, sometimes she can watch the needle go in her arm and the blood be drawn and sometimes she can't bear to watch. Bruce cleaned up the blood and covered the small wound. "I'll let you know when I get the results."
"Thank you. Keep this between us, please. I don't want people prying on my business."
"Then why come to me?"
"I needed someone who would understand, what I'm going through. That's you more than anyone." Thea shrugged. "I'll probably check up on you two, see what progress you've made." Thea walked out of the lab and caught up with her brother who happened to be up ahead. "Hey Alec, can we talk?"
"Sure." Alec led her into a break room, that was empty. He checked the area for any cameras or any hidden listening devices. "What's up?"
"I asked Dr Banner to run a blood test to see if there's any answers for why I can do what I can."
"Do you think that will work?"
"Maybe, it's worth a shot."
"What do you remember of that day?"
"I remember being in Dad's lab and dropping that stupid rock that he was overprotective about. I don't remember much after that, just walking up in pain. I remember the room glowing a bright red. Dad later told me that the light was coming from my veins. I wonder if the rock activated the powers."
"Why do you have these abilities and I don't?"
"If we're going on me always having these powers and the rock activating them, it's simple. I either inherited from my mother or they skipped you and went to me, if they came from Dad. It's a common thing, a genetic defect skipping a generation."
"As soon as we get the results, we hide them from SHIELD or destroy them. We cannot let anyone get their hands on this information."
"That's what I was planning to do. I also think that I need to start training with my powers. I prefer to use my weapons but there may be times where my powers are all I've got to defend myself. I stabbed Loki in the leg and he seems fine. There's more out there in space then what we know."
"Okay, when do you want to start training?"
"As soon as possible. I don't want any more people to find out about me."
"You could try tracking Clint again."
"I already tried. I used the arrow necklace he gave me for my birthday, but I couldn't do it."
"Maybe you need something with a stronger meaning, a better connection between you two."
"Maybe I could try my owl necklace."
"What's the meaning behind it?"
"He gave it to me after I completed my first solo mission. Mom named me after the Greek Goddess Athena, one of her symbols is an owl. Clint has always said that I see what others don't. I see from a different perspective."
"That may be the best we'll get. Where is your necklace?"
"In my locker. Wait here and I'll go get. I'll check if Dr Banner has an update on my blood." Thea walked out the room and made her way towards the lab. She poked her in and saw that it was still Tony and Bruce in, but Tony looked annoyed. "Hey, Dr Banner, do you have any results?"
"Not yet. What are you looking to find?"
"Anything, at this point." Thea left the lab and headed for the locker room.
"Thea!" She heard Steve shout from behind her.
"Yeah?"
"Do you trust SHIELD?"
"I trust some people in SHIELD, not the organisation."
"What about Fury? Do you trust him?"
"No. I don't trust people that keep secrets as much as he does. If you're having doubts, then I'd check the storage units. I think Fury is keeping something from us, especially you."
"Me?"
"You were concerned over Loki's sceptre, he was way too quick to dismiss the idea. This is just my opinion though."
"Okay. Thank you." Thea nodded before continuing to the locker room. She opened her locker and searched for her owl necklace. She soon found it and put it over her head.
 
Thea made it back to the break room and found Alec pacing. "I got it. I think Steve is doubting SHIELD."
"We'll deal with that later. Try to track Clint."
"Okay." Thea sat down and held the owl pendant in her hands. She closed her eyes when they began to hurt again. She got glances of Clint with his bow and arrows but nothing to identify where he is. "Nothing. All I saw was him, nothing else."
"Do you always close your eyes when tracking?"
"Yeah. My eyes hurt less when I close them."
"Try again but keep your eyes open."
"Why?"
"Just do it."
"Fine." Thea tried again but kept her eyes open. Her vision turned red before she got a clearer picture of Clint. He was on the ramp of a jet. It took a moment for Thea to recognise where he was. "Clint." She muttered. Thea could have sworn that his eyes flickered as if almost breaking out of the trance. The connection was broken when the pain got to much for Thea. She was heavily panting and she could taste something metallic in her mouth, soon realising it was blood. "He's here. It was Loki's plan the entire time. Destroy us from the inside. We have to warn everyone, now." Thea and Alec headed for the door, when suddenly there was an explosion somewhere on board. The impact affected the entire helicarrier and knocked the siblings off their feet. "We're too late." They rushed out the room and saw that the helicarrier was chaotic. "I need to find Clint. You go find our friends."
"I don't think you should go alone."
"I somehow spoke to him when I was tracking. It looked like he was breaking out of the mind control. I'm the best bet at bringing him back."
"Okay fine." Alec handed her an ear piece. "Go."
"Be careful." Thea took off down the corridor to look for Clint.
 
As Thea was rushing down the corridor, she could hear all the chaos happening through comms but she managed to stay focused. She stumbled to regain her balance, when she felt the helicarrier tilt to one side. She heard Fury say that Clint was heading to the detention level and Natasha respond that she was going after him. Thea changed directions and headed for the detention level. Surprisingly, she hadn't run into any trouble as she maneuvered through the helicarrier. Thea felt her heart stop when Fury's voice came through the comms. "Agent Coulson is down."
"Paramedics are on their way." A SHIELD Agent informed.
"They're here." Fury said. There was a pause before he spoke again. "They called it."
"No, no, no." Thea whimpered ripping out her ear piece. Her hands shook as she brought them up to rake through her hair. Her legs were unable to support her weight and she collapsed to the floor. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as if to support her. "No! Coulson! Please, no!" She was too consumed by her grief that she didn't notice her veins glowing bring red. Her grief soon turned to anger and then rage. "NO!" She let out a gut-wrenching scream and a wave of power emitted from her. The wave of power travelled through the helicarrier and briefly interfered with its system. Alec got up from where he was sat beside Hill and sprinted out of the room. A few minutes later, he found Thea on the floor with her head in her hands. As he got closer, she lifted her head and Alec could see the fire and determination in her eyes. It shocked him that her eyes were flickering red and her veins were glowing faintly red. Without speaking, Alec brought Thea into his arms and just held her. Since the siblings had joined SHIELD, Phil Coulson had been the father figure that they both desperately needed.