╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

Guards started to grow closer to the kneeling man with a menacing grin and the woman behind him. The man used his scepter to stand. Rayne swallowed, taking another step back. The man looks around, ready to make a move.

Fury looked at the two on the platform. He noticed the weapon in the man's hand. "Sir, please put down the spear!" he ordered.

The man looked down at the scepter in his hand, then looked over his shoulder at Rayne's sister. He fired a blue energy stream toward them. Janet shrank down, flying under a table. Barton pushed Fury and himself to the floor, out of the way. Rayne used a forcefield to contain the energy, throwing it back in the direction it was sent.

Irma leapt into action, throwing energy at Rayne as the guards opened fire. Every attack Irma threw, Rayne dodged it, teleporting away from the attack. Irma caught Rayne's arms, pulling them behind her.

"I don't want to hurt you," Rayne strained.

Irma pulled harder on Rayne's arms, bringing her to her knees. "I do," Irma spat. Her words to her sister was cut short by her being sent sliding across the floor from a forceful kick.

Janet's body went back to normal, and her insect-shaped helmet uncovered her face. She helped Rayne up, watching her roll her shoulders. She looked around, not seeing the woman. All she saw were the bodies of dead guards and scientists.

"You have heart," the man said as he and Irma surrounded Barton. Barton reached for his gun, but it was too late. The man pressed the tip of the scepter to Barton's chest, putting him under mind control. Barton put his gun back in the holster. Janet shrinks down and flies over to Fury, who was getting the Tesseract from the machine. He shook the pain out of his hand as he put the Cube in a metal briefcase.

Irma grabbed Rayne by the hair, holding a bright ball of energy to her head.

"Please don't," the man said, turning around. "I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury told him.

"Of course it does," Loki insisted. "We've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Selvig stood from checking pulses upon hearing Loki's name. "Loki, brother of Thor?"

Irma scoffed, rolling her eyes. He was a god, and the only thing the mortals knew him as was the brother of Thor. But after this, everyone will know and fear the name Loki, ruler of Midgard.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury said.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki compared.

"Are you planning to step on us?" Fury asked.

"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free," Loki proposed.

"Free from what?" Janet asked.

"Freedom," Loki said simply. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-" Loki quickly turned around, putting Selvig under mind control. "...you will know peace."

Rayne struggled to break free from Irma's grasp. Her eyes drifted up to the cloud of energy brewing at the top of the chamber they were in.

"Yeah, you say peace. I kinda think you mean the other thing," Fury said.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Barton spoke, moving over to Loki and Irma. "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like the pharoahs of old," Fury snarked.

"He's right," Selvig agreed, looking at one of the monitors. "The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

Rayne could feel her body growing hot as the blue came back to her hair. Blue flickered into her eyes as Loki spoke. "Well then," Loki sighed. Without even a second thought, Barton drew his gun and fired a shot at Fury.

"No!" Rayne yelled seeing yellow flood her vision. Her eyebrows creased as she was pushed to the ground. She blinked the color out of her eyes, pushing herself to sit on her heels. Her mind control powers can't be used against her sisters, Irma knew that. It was useless for her to try and turn her.

"Rayne!" Janet's muffled voice called to her. Everything around her was blurred. Time seemed to slow and speed up at the same time. She could feel her body lolling to the side. The mind warping didn't actually work, did it? She groaned, hearing both Fury's and Janet's voice echoing in her head, trying to talk to her. In her mind, she answered them clearly. But, in reality, her words came out as a series of one word answers and incoherent mumbling.

She felt herself lift off of the floor, seeing flashes of light as wind breezed through her hair and past her sweaty face. She could her heavy breathing and the chatter of a radio. They were running. Wait, why were they running? The research center was about to explode, right.

Her body pulsed the farther they got from the Tesseract, like a homing beacon. She felt her feet touch the quickly crumbling ground and her arms being thrown over two people's shoulders. Her eyes were starting to go back to normal, but they were colored a bright blue.

"Get her in the chopper," Fury's voice bounced around in Rayne's head. She tried to protest, but it came out as blubbering. Her foot pushed against the step of helicopter and she slipped from their hands. Stumbling over, she started running. Her body pushed forward as she heard Janet flying after her.

There wasn't anything she could do about the burst of energy that expelled out of her as the cloud of Tesseract energy explode the base, sending it collapsing in on itself. Rayne fell on her knees in the grass, blood running down her nose.

"Nova!" Janet called, running across the grass. She sat Rayne's head on her lap, trying to keep her conscious. Rayne blubbered out an apology, shaking her head. "You have nothing to apologize for."

She heard running next to her and she looked over, seeing Fury, quickly limping over to them. "They got away," he panted. A brief moment passed before the sound of Coulson speaking through the radio broke the silence.

"Director Fury, do you copy?" Coulson asked, awaiting an answer from his boss.

Fury held the radio up to his mouth. "The Tesseract is with a hostile force," he reported. "I have men down. Hill?"

"A lot of men still under," Hill informed. "Don't know how many survivors."

"Sound a general call," Fury ordered. "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

"Roger that," Hill responded.

"Coulson, get back to base," Fury ordered. "This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."

"What do we do?" Coulson asked.

Fury moved the radio from his mouth with a sigh. There was only a few options he could think of, but all of them ended in nuclear attacks or something that could potentially kill the goddess-like woman laying in Janet's lap. But, there was one option. Janet came to him about it years earlier. The project was untitled until he and Rayne made an encounter from a woman with cosmic powers, coming from the Tesseract itself. She named it after that extraordinary woman.

Fury looked at Janet, holding out the radio. She looked up at him, slowly taking the radio from his hand. He mouthed the word she'd been dying to put into motion since it was nothing but a thought roaming around in her head. Janet turned the radio to Hill's frequency only. "Start the Initiative," she ordered with a half-smile on her face. "It's time."

AUTHOR'S NOTE
well, guess who's about to start testing today? this girl! as a way to reward myself, I posted early! you're welcome! don't forget to vote!