Chapter Text
Authors Note: Everything here is owned by Disney Marvel. Anything else new is mine. Welcome to my story.
Strangers
Fury walked through the doors of the facility and found Selvig tirelessly working to figure out what was happening with the Tesseract. Agents were scattered throughout the area, each seemingly involved in serious matter.
"Talk to me, doctor." Fury barked as he approached the scientist.
"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig replied, motioning for the director to follow him.
Fury blinked, "Is that supposed to be funny?"
"Not funny at all." Selvig responded, "The tesseract is not only active, but has the ability to exhibit behavior."
"I assume you pulled the plug, then?"
Selvig scoffed at that apparently ridiculous statement, "She's an intelligent energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level-"
Fury couldn't believe what he was hearing, "We prepared for this, Doctor—harnessing energy from space. Where's Agent Barton?"
As if summoned, Clint came down from his vantage point and stood with Fury and Selvig.
"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" The director asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"No one's come and gone, and Selvig's clean. If there was any tampering being done sir, it wasn't on this end."
Fury blinked and stared at his agent, "On this end?" Barton nodded.
"The cube is a doorway to the end of space, right? Well, doors open on both sides." He shrugged.
The Tesseract inexplicably thunders and begins to shake the entire facility with its vibrations. Flaring rings and a harsh glow spout out of the cube and around the device. Suddenly, the Tesseract's energy builds up and forms a huge vortex, which then opens a portal, reaching deep into space. A plume of blue matter erupts into a cloud-like form and fills the area, reaching the top of the facility, funneling all of the energy in the room upwards toward the ceiling like the suction of a vacuum, without the whir and noise, but all of the power. It's quiet. Fury and Barton's attention is drawn to the edge of the platform where a figure is kneeling; smoke rising off of it. The figure spreads his face into a wide grin as he raises his head. He locks eyes on each of the three for a moment, unblinking. He stands up, and it is quickly realized that he is holding a weapon.
"Sir, please, put down your spear!" Fury yells.
The man glances at his spear as if in consideration of the request, only to suddenly aim it directly at the men, firing a blast straight at them with his spear. Barton reacts and tackles Fury, barely escaping the path of the fired shot.
Then, chaos is unleashed. Everyone springs into action. Fury watches helplessly as Barton takes on the alien creature along with a team of agents, only to discover that even in their numbers, they are no match for the unwanted guest. Crawling over to the Tesseract, Fury grabs it and places it inside his briefcase as discreetly as he can, while this his best agent, Clint, is placed under some sort of mind control. One by one, each of the agents begin to rise robotically, manipulated by the man with the spear. Nick Fury knows he has to get out with the Tesseract. He begins to walk away, hoping he can sneak off unnoticed while things are still going down, but he was spotted. From behind, he hears the man speak.
"I wish you wouldn't." The visitor remarks, "I still need that."
Fury turns to face him, "This doesn't have to get any messier."
The man scoffs, "Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
Selvig, who had been laying on the ground after the attack, rose up, eyes full of awareness. "Loki? Brother of Thor?"
The annoyed squint of Loki's eye is not missed. Fury stiffened his pose, now fully aware of who this man is and what he is capable of. "We have no quarrel with your people." He states.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki replies.
Nick Fury hardened his gaze, "You planning to step on us?"
Loki walked around his new soldiers, "I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."
"Free from what?" Fury questioned.
"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..." Like a gunslinger, Loki turns to face Selvig who is standing behind him and places his spear point against Selvig's heart. Selvig's eyes glow black. "Then, you will know peace."
Fury wasn't persuaded for a second, "Yeah, sure, you say peace, but I'm sure you mean quite the opposite."
The energy from the Tesseract began to grow unstable above them; a whir and heavy vibration rattles the walls. Clint Barton marches over to Loki. "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means... to bury us."
"Like the Pharaohs of Old. It's the least I can do for her." He looked straight into Loki's eyes, which flickered with understanding at who was meant by her.
Loki smiled, "So she lives. Well, then..." Loki, looks to Barton, who is completely under his power, and doesn't hesitate to shoot Fury. Nick falls to the ground. Barton grabs the case containing the Tesseract, and leaves the lab with Loki and Selvig.
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Kendra pressed the end call button and put her phone back into her pocket. It wasn't like Clint to screen her calls, so she told herself he was just busy. She knew he couldn't diverge any details about his mission with Natasha to Russia, but had promised he would stay in touch regardless. Thinking nothing of it now, Kendra stood in the elevator of STARK tower and pushed the slipping strap of her bag further up over her shoulder. She felt another sharp pain to her temple and gave it a gentle massage with her fingertips and closed her eyes. She had been fighting a headache all day but wasn't going to miss out on finally seeing Tony and Pepper since she was having a rare day off. She needed some down-time, and was excited to see what Tony was working on (and if she could help).
When the doors dinged opened, she was greeted by the biggest smile, and immediately launched herself into the women's arms. "Oh my god I can't believe you are here!" she exclaimed, hugging her close, "It has taken you far too long to come see me!"
Kendra unraveled herself and laughed, "Pepper! You know how in-demand I am. Plus Tony wasn't exactly thrilled I'm still working with SHIELD—you know how those two get."
"I heard that," Tony joked as he walked into the room, "But Pepper makes a good point. I could have sworn you arrived in Manhattan over a month ago and yet here you are just now coming to see me. Too cool for us now that you have gone and become some kind of god? I'm hurt. Truly. It keeps me up at night." He shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged.
Kendra raised her shoulders in return, "How about I didn't realize how much I missed you until right now and it's been too long?"
Tony rolled his eyes but brought his hands out of his pockets and extended them wide open in expected embrace. Kendra immediately came over and hugged him close.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he sighed, whispering, "You look good. Missed you around these parts." as he rested his chin on top of her head. She hugged him tighter.
"I'm sorry I've been a stranger." She whispered back.
"Yeah well, phone calls work both ways right? Now," He pulled away from her, "let me show you what I have been working on." Taking her hand, he pulled her over to a glass case with cylinder stretched through, a green glowing effervescence in the center.
"Is that a solo energy reactor?!" Kendra exclaimed with glee.
Tony nodded, "You bet. I'm installing her tonight out on the bay. By the end of the night, STARK tower will be running on 100 years' worth of clean energy. I'm hoping to have all major cities equipped with it by the next year."
She stepped away from the machine and looked over at her friend, "Oh, Tony, this is amazing."
He smiled, "Thought you might think so."
Pepper rolled her eyes and walked over to them both, "As much as I love to just stand here listening to the two of you talk shop," She looked to her boyfriend, "How about we look into ordering lunch? I want to hear all about things I am not supposed to know about. Like New Mexico, and you being a demi god, and the fact that you are shadowing Captain America," Getting closer to Kendra she bent her head low, "Who is incredibly handsome."
Kendra and Tony both rolled their eyes.
Kendra just shrugged, "I would love to spill all the dark secrets of my office, how about we start with lunch and see where we—" Suddenly her phone started going off at rapid fire. Frowning, she glanced at the screen and registered Coulson's name. She raised a finger to excuse herself.
"Andrews. No, I haven't been back there, I've been out. Coulson, it's my day off I thought—Wait. Hold on, what are you talking about? He was on a mission with Nat in Russia. Want to repeat that? Forget it, I'm coming in. I'll be there soon." She ended the call and shoved her phone into her jeans. Turning around she noticed Pepper and Tony were standing incredibly nearby, apparently listening in.
"I… have to go." She stated as she rushed passed them.
"Let me guess, top secret?" Pepper turned to question her.
Before she could answer, Tony stepped forward, "Tell Coulson I won't take his call and to knock it off."
Kendra walked over and gave each of them a kiss on the check, "I adore you both, let's actually do lunch soon when I am not hunting bad guys, okay?"
"You know, I used to hunt bad guys," Tony whispered, Kendra squeezed his hand and gave him a small smile. Then she was gone.