───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰ ───

WITH Loki taken care of and guarded away into a cell where there was certainty that he wouldn't escape off, five people stood by the long table placed in the control room, focused on the videotape of Fury talking to Loki through the cell. Natasha was sat comfortably in one of the chairs while watching the footage along with Steve, though he sat two chairs away. Bruce was pretending in being interested in the floor meanwhile the newest visitor, who was known as Thor Odinson, stood with his arms crossed. (Y/N) was leaning on her arms against the back of a chair, and she had no idea where Tony had disappeared too, but she didn't say anything.

"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, if you so much scratch that glass," Fury's voice was heard through the tape. He had pushed a button that opened an exit below the cell, and the strong wind blew in. "It's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

"Ant," Fury signaled to Loki inside, then pointing at the controls that were by him. "Boot."

"It's an impressive cage," Loki laughed, entertained. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard," His eyes located the camera inside the cell. "A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

From her spot, (Y/N) could see the uncomfortable way Bruce shifted on his feet at Loki's words, being too obvious that it was meant for him. Natasha looked up from the video and eyed Bruce too from the corner of her eye, though she did not say anything and returned to the video.

"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated the question incredulously. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh," Loki winced with a grin. "It burns you to have 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."

With those final words, Fury walked away from the camera's range, and the footage ended, not before (Y/N) could see how deeply and menacingly Loki stared into the camera. It looked like he knew what he was doing and who was watching him, and he enjoyed every second of it.

Bruce was the first one to speak, holding his glasses in one hand. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve voiced with a serious tone. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor didn't move from his spot. (Y/N) tried to rack her brain to see if she could have any memory of hearing about them or at least have small knowledge, but nothing came into her head. "They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army. . .from outer space," Steve was saying it like he still didn't believe what they were dealing with.

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

Thor frowned. "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha spoke for the first time in the conversation, arms crossed in her chest and also leaning into the table.

Steve decided to speak of another matter. "I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

(Y/N) seemed to agree with what he implicated. "You're right, it looks like he wanted it to happen."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats," Bruce tried to change the subject. "You could smell crazy on him."

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

"He killed 80 people in two days."

"He's adopted."

"I think it's about mechanics," Bruce announced, still holding the glasses in his hands. "Iridium. . .What do they need the iridium for?"

(Y/N) straightened in her position when she heard upcoming footsteps coming their way, thinking it was Fury and he was about to join the conversation, but the sight from the corner of her eye told her that it wasn't him.

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony loudly announced while stepping into the control room with Coulson beside him, trying to keep up. Tony leaned down to speak to him in a lower volume but it was still audible. "I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."

After that, Coulson excused himself from him and Tony walked deeper into the room with his usual confident strut, one hand in his jacket as he went over to where Thor was standing. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing," he told Thor before patting him in the bicep, and the expression of deep confusion and disgust was evident in the god's face.

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

Tony stood in the center of the control room, surrounded by the four screens that Fury uses every time he steps in the same spot.

"Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails," he ordered and the workers stared at him with questioning glances. Tony payed them no attention and pointed over to the side. "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Tony dropped his arms and stared at the screens with a rising confusion bubbling inside him. He hesitated before covering one of his eyes, pretending to be Fury for a second before he turned back at the group.

"How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Maria answered simply.

"Sounds exhausting," Tony commented, and focused on one of the screens. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

Maria gave him a look. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night."

Tony backed away from the screens and got closer to the table. "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 decided to speak up.

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce explained.

Tony was ready to reply back. "Unless 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."

Tony seemed ecstatic, gesturing to Bruce. "Finally, someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Steve muttered under his breath, slight disbelief in his tone.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony shook Bruce's hand and began speaking again. "Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

"Thanks."

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," Fury interrupted in his booming voice and joining the conversation. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his," Steve suggested. "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 told him and (Y/N) knew there was something he wasn't sharing with the group. "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand — "

"I do," Steve cut Thor off, pointing his finger. "I understood that reference."

(Y/N) saw the way Tony rolled his eyes behind Steve, and she found the enthusiastic way that he said it entertaining, because she was sure she probably did the same thing once she had returned back to Earth and had no clue whatsoever.

"Shall we play, doctor," Tony turned to Bruce.

"This way, sir."