NICK    J .    FURY
director of  shield

AGENT PHIL COULSON
fury's         right         eye

AGENT MARIA HILL
fury's        left        eye

somewhere in the skies of north america .
may 2012 .

     THE HELICARRIER CONTROL ROOM WAS BATHED IN NATURAL LIGHT AS THE BRILLIANT BLUE EXPANSE OF THE SKY POURED IN FROM THE WALL OF WINDOWS. Diane had to say, she was fairly impressed by the size of the entire flying compound.

     She had been sitting at the large conference table since they arrived and she took the time to update everyone back in Wakanda on her sudden situation. The only thing she kept to herself was Steve's emergence from the ice. That was something she decided was best to tell them in person. She looked up just as Dr. Bruce Banner got up from his seat to approach her. "Hello, Dr. Banner," she greeted warmly, getting to her feet.

     "H– Hi..." he replied awkwardly before holding out his hand and shaking hers. "I, uh, just figured I should introduce myself. Dr. Bruce Banner, but... you already... knew that, huh?"

     "Diane Freeman," she introduced herself with her hands clasped behind her back. Sensing his awkwardness, she continued, "And of course, I know who you are. You've got quite the resume, might I add. Fury briefed me on everything yesterday. They said we would be working together... along with Tony Stark."

     "Right. I-I was told that you're, um..."

     She half-smiled. "'Enchanced' is what they're calling it, yes."

     Fury approached the two of them. He held his hand out to Bruce. "Doctor. Thank you for coming."

     "Thanks for asking nicely," he replied, shaking the man's hand. "So, how long am I staying?" he asked, sheepishly.

     "Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind."

     "Where are you with that?"

     Fury gestured to the lower level where Coulson was managing the agent stations. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops... If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Diane kept quiet, but she knew how Steve was feeling about their tactics already, if not from his expression alone.

     "That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha added in.

     "You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

     "How many are there?"

     "Call every lab you know," Bruce informed them, becoming more confident as he removed his jacket. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm and basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." Fury gave him a nod of understanding and rarely expressed respect.

     "Cosmic rays," Diane finally cut in.

     "I'm sorry?"

     "They should be calibrated for cosmic rays instead. We want to find the Tesseract as fast as possible, this is the way. I mean 50 joules of the strongest cosmic ray is nothing compared to what the Tesseract outputs. So that means whoever's equipment overloads first is our winner. Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D., whoever can foot the bill." The men stared in silence. "What? Did you think I was just going to be a lab rat with a pretty face while I'm here? Cosmic rays, Doctor! Trust me."

• • •

     "So, I heard you can take photos with these things. Is that true?" Steve asked, holding his S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued smartphone like some sort of miniature clipboard.

     Diane grinned mischievously. "Here..." She pulled out her own phone and, with no warning, aimed it at Steve and snapped multiple pictures. "And then..." She turned the phone around and leaned against Steve's shoulder. "Say 'cheese!'"

     "Wait, where do I look?" Steve asked, but she had already taken several pictures. For all he knew, they could've been sent to the "Internet" already, as people told him it was called.

     "Don't worry! They look fine," Diane assured with an unconvincing grin.

     Steve glared at her. "Yeah, I'm sure you look fine in all those photos," he grumbled with a sulky tone.

     "Of course I do," she quipped. Steve lunged for her phone, but it floated out of his reach. "Cry about it. That's what we call 'blackmail pictures,' Rogers," she said with a devious grin as she sat her phone back on the table.

     "That's just dastardly," he muttered.

     "Did he just say 'dastardly?'" Tony chimed in from across the table, peering at them from over his glasses.

     "Aw, leave him alone. He'll stop talking like a geriatric by the end of the year." She turned her attention back to the sullen Steve. "Hey, has Agent Coulson asked you yet, by the way?"

     "About the cards? Eh, no. He hasn't yet."

     Diane spun her chair around and scanned the immense control room until she spotted Agent Phil Coulson. "It'd mean the world to him if you'd just ask him instead of waiting, ya know. He's too nervous to do it."

     "Uh... I don't know about all that. Wouldn't it be rather presumptuous...?"

     She rolled her eyes. "Oh, phooey! Just do it!" she cried, pushing his chair away from her. Steve sighed and got up to go speak to Coulson. Just as she turned back to the table, he took one more desperate swipe for the phone to no avail as it reappeared in her hand. "Nice try, slow ass," she said, smirking.

     Diane decided to send a quick text to Shuri who seemed particularly concerned about her coming home as soon as possible for some reason.

     She didn't have much time to consider why before Sitwell's voice pulled her back to the immediate situation at hand. "We've got a hit. 67% match. Wait, cross-match. 79%."

     "Location?" Coulson asked as he approached the agent's station.

     "Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

     "Cap. You're up," instructed Fury, who was standing at the helm, looking over the massive control room.

     Diane went over to Fury as something clicked in her mind. "Wait. He said 28 Konigstrasse?"

     "Yeah. Why?" She held up her phone for him to see. "What am I looking at?"

     "An invite. If I hadn't been zapped halfway across the world the other night, I'd have been getting ready for this hours ago," she told him with a tight smile. "He's there for a reason, right? He didn't just pick anywhere, he picked this event. Schaffer is a man with connections in the science community, specifically physics, and he has access to certain materials that could prove useful to Loki. And well... this is my ticket to walk right in."

     He seemed to ruminate on the idea. "How soon can you get there?"

     "10... 15 minutes, give or take."

     "Then suit up."

• • •

28 konigstrasse .
stuttgart , germany .

     People milled around in front of the luminous museum. The warm lights overwhelmed the gentle wash of moonlight and got caught in the intricate blooms of golden beading that accentuated the silky, cobalt fabric of her haltered dress in the most delicate way. Her sparkling shawl did nothing to block the nip of the night German air. Its use lied elsewhere.

     Wasting no time, Diane made her way to the guarded entrance. Pulling her phone out of her jeweled envelope purse, she had her invite scanned and walked into the building. The metal detectors stayed silent as she passed through with her mini arsenal of Vibranium knives hidden in plain view. No one suspected that her jewelry doubled as state-of-the-art weapons.

     Activating her comms, Diane whispered to Natasha, "Delta here, I'm inside. Nothing out of the ordinary and no sign of Loki yet. What's the ETA?"

     "Copy that. Be there within the hour."

     "Copy. I'll look for Loki. Keep y'all updated. Over," she informed Natasha as she mixed into the crowd. She plucked a champagne flute from a passing tray while avoiding talking to people and scanning the grand hall for a particular god of mischief.

     She was careful not to absentmindedly sip on the champagne. She was here for business, not pleasure. This was all unchartered waters, at least for her. A god among Earth? Until now, they were just fairytales Schmidt had told her...

     Wrenching her from her thoughts was a pair of blue eyes in the distance. Diane's heart thumped painfully in her chest. For a millisecond, their eyes met. She hadn't even realized that her feet were moving in that direction. Something about him felt...

     A hand found its way to her waist, causing her to gasp and spin around into someone's chest. Her champagne splashed the man's chest. "Oh- I-I'm so sor-"

     "Looking for someone?" the man inquired just as she craned her head to meet a much colder pair of blue eyes. He simply waved his hand, the stain evaporating into the air. Without another word, he began to usher Diane away with surprising gentleness.

     The shock dissipated and her face flitted into an annoyed expression. "Unfortunately, I am." She pushed thoughts of the other man to the back of her mind as she focused on this one.

     Diane began to notice that she hardly ever saw Loki without a twisted grin on his face. "I'd be remiss not to say how ravishing you look this evening," he complimented, taking her aback. "You resemble a star plucked from the night sky by the gods themselves."

     "Well, thanks I guess," she reluctantly accepted his compliment. They stood there with Diane looking anywhere but at him while he kept his hand on her waist, guiding her toward a grand, marble staircase that was surely restricted. "Nice... scarf," she muttered absentmindedly. She glanced around as he guided her up the staircase. The clicking of her heels on the sturdy marble was becoming more audible as they left the orchestra and mulling crowds behind.

     "There's no need to fret. We are currently undetectable. It's just you and me now. I must say, however, that I am surprised to see you here," he told her nonchalantly as they settled on the balcony, overseeing everything.

     "Oh, really? And why's that?" she shot back, tilting her champagne flute as she continued to watch the other guests who seemed so small as she and Loki stood three floors above them.

     "You strike me as an intelligent woman, Lady Diane. Surely, you didn't think it would be this simple. Running here to... what? Apprehend me? Perhaps this was merely a misdirection."

     "Well, as much as I hate to admit it... you're right. I have considered that possibility. However, a concrete lead tends to prove more fruitful than a hunch. You told us where you were, so we followed. Sometimes it's that simple."

     "Mm," he hummed to himself as if considering the logic. "Well, since you are here, you'll have the privilege of witnessing what power looks like and how to use it."

     "Oh, sounds riveting. Can't wait," she deadpanned.

     Loki leaned down, wrapping her in his presence. "I will be seeing you later, Lady Diane," he said quietly. He gave her one last grin before disappearing into the crowd.

     "Foxtrot," she whispered, out of an air of practiced caution. "I'm changing position. Loki wants us here. Seemingly as a distraction. Schaffer has a lab not far from here. I imagine there's something there that Loki needs. It's no coincidence that he's at his gala tonight."

     "Copy. Keep me updated."

     "Got it. I need Sitwell to get me a clear location." Diane glanced around before slipping into one of the empty grand chambers behind her. When she closed then opened her eyes, a large, imposing modern building stood in front of her. A brisk breeze wrapped around her, nipping at the exposed skin of her arms and back. As she entered the building concealed, she continued to rack her brain for all of the possible materials they could possibly need, but it was difficult not knowing what their exact goal was. Depleted uranium, lead, iridium...

     Following the signs that were directing toward storage, Diane hurriedly made her way through the compound. Guards and cameras were wholly unaware of her presence as she nearly ran through the windowed corridors.

     Upon finding a large, reinforced door with the label "LAGERUNG," Diane easily phased through. The cavernous chamber was deathly silent. Rows and aisles of containers reminiscent of filing cabinets.

     Plutonium, iridium, lead, various alloys... Diane scanned the labels for any sign of distress or being tampered with.

     "He told me you'd be here." Diane turned around to find a man she recognized to be Hawkeye standing on top of a row behind her, aiming a compound bow and arrow directly at her heart.

     "Aw, was he thinking about me? That's cute. Wanna tell me what you came here for?" The man didn't respond. Stalling. A game two can play. "I had a feeling you wouldn't be that forthcoming..." She activated her comms. "Foxtrot, I have a visual on Hawkeye. Shall I knock him out or bring him in kicking and screaming? Your call."

     "What's his location?"

     "Very still. Just standing here... watching me... like a hawk."

     "Do whatever it takes, but remember the mission." She turned her attention back to the agent in front of her. "Well?"

     Two highly-trained assassins stared each other down, both desperate to bring the other back to the one they answer to. When he didn't respond, she lit up and charged.

     The two expert fighters sparred and parried each other's fierce attacks with Diane maintaining the upper hand, but never dealing the blow, until...

     "GAH!" Diane couldn't move and felt jolts of electricity spike through her head. From her forehead. With all of her willpower, she reached a trembling hand to her head and gripped the arrow, yanking it from her skin with a grunt.

     She whipped her head around as she shakily tried to get off the ground, but she was alone. "Foxtrot, I lost visual, but I-I can still pursue."

     "That's a negative. Stand down for now. I wanna know what they were after."

     "Copy," she muttered as she told him the missing vacutainer that she sensed earlier. Iridium.

     Steve's voice came through in her ear. "Loki's been apprehended."

     "Copy... copy that. On my way."

     As Diane turned to leave, something caught her attention. She slowly turned to face the wall of windows. There he was. Behind her, hiding amongst the glass and towering in stature. She suddenly felt the same fear she did when she first saw him. When she whipped around, there was no one there.

     "Scratch that. I'm going after Hawkeye."

     "Stand down, Freeman."

     "But—"

     "You're letting him get to you. I said stand down."

     "I can catch them—"

     "Fall back. Do you copy?" She still contemplated disobeying. "Diane. That's a direct order. Do you copy?"

     "I copy. Give Nat my coordinates. Over."

• • •