The four of us escorted Loki back to the helicarrier and took him to a large cell made from plexiglass. It was a large cell that hadn't originally been made to confine Loki. In fact it was supposed to be for the Hulk.

I had gone back to normal and less agent like thankfully. However, we had figured out some disturbing news. Loki's appearance in Germany had only been a distraction for what Clint had been doing at the time. Loki had forced Clint to steal a mineral known as Iridium. One of the men that had been attending the Gala just so happened to have some stored away a couple miles away and those stores of Iridium had disappeared. They found several of Clint's arrows in many of the guards who had been protecting the safe. It was all disturbing news which led me to think all of this was some sort of big trick. Loki knew something we didn't.

I was walking to a debriefing room where we were having a meeting of sorts with the rest of the 'recruits'. I was walking with Steve who had removed the face mask of his suit to reveal his strong featured face. I still had my suit on yet had retracted my wings away so that they were all furled up once again. Steve and I both shared misgivings after the easy capturing of Loki. It was obvious something was up but what exactly was it?

We both walked into the room at the same time to see that multiple people were already there. Bruce was there as he stood behind a holographic screen but wasn't using it for anything. The buff blonde was there and I had come to know that he was the almighty god of thunder Thor. At least he was on our side. Natasha was there as well as she sat at a nearby debriefing table. I could tell she was very worried for Clint at the moment, as was I. Stark was no where to be seen. I went to stand near Natasha as the room was mostly silent.

However, all eyes were on the main monitor that broadcasted Fury speaking to Loki from outside his hydraulically riged cage. Bruce rubbed his jaw as he observed Loki through the screen. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me" Loki stated as he looked around the impenetrable cell with mild admiration. Fury shook his head " No, it was built for something a lot stronger than you" Fury replied as he stood stiffly in front the cell with his shoulders back.

Loki grinned maliciously " The mindless beast, who pretends he's still but a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki asked as my eyes flickered to Bruce who watched the monitor's screen intently. His face was a mask and made it hard to read his emotions. " How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. 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" Fury told him with his voice reaching dangerous levels.

Loki paced across his cell " 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" Loki said and this statement revealed his motive. Power, that's the only thing he wanted. He wanted dominance over others. Fury actually smiled but there was no kindness behind it. " Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something" Fury stated before he turned and left the room.

Loki looked up at the camera we were watching him from with a sinister look in his eyes. He grinned widely like that creepy blue cat from Alice in Wonderland. My mother used to read me that book when I was younger. The monitor finally went black and this left the room in a distilled silence that permeated in the air like cheap perfume. Steve crossed his arms as his eyes focused on the ground. Thor looked a little torn apart after watching the mini interrogation. Bruce was still looking at the now blank monitor with a mixed expression.

" He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asked breaking the silence and Steve look up seriously. "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked as he turned the attention to Thor.

Thor cleared his throat quickly " 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. I arched a brow in surprise " An army? From outer space?" I asked narrowing my eyes. How on earth were we supposed to defend the Earth from an army of aliens?

Bruce took a step closer to our mini circle of people. " So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for" Bruce noted. Thor looked at him with recognition " Selvig?" He asked curiously.

Bruce nodded " He is a fellow astrophysicist" He explained.

" He is a friend" Thor replied.

" Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of our own" Natasha claimed from where she sat. We shared a quick look of concern that shared a hundred words.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here" Steve said and I nodded in agreement.

Bruce interceded quickly "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him" Bruce claimed and Natasha gave a faint grin from the analogy. I had personally noticed a small connection between them yet hadn't quite said anything yet.

" Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother" Thor said with his deep accent. I had a hard time understanding why Thor was still trying to defend his brother. I wasn't an expert on the relationship between then but I am pretty sure Loki tried to kill him multiple times.

"He killed eighty people in two days" Natasha pointed out absently.

" He's adopted" Thor tried to defend.

Bruce quickly brought up a new topic " Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asked right as two other people walked into the room suddenly.

" It's a stabilizing agent" Tony claimed as he waltzed into the room wearing normal clothes rather than his Iron Man suit. He was a lot less threatening looking without it on. Phil walked in behind him with his hands in his pant pockets.

" It means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants" Tony saud with a know it all attitude. "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" Tony added absently as he surveyed the different monitors. I noticed his hand trailed downwards to the base of one of the screens and then returned.

I narrowed my eyes as my arms crossed themselves over my chest."When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" I asked and Tony didn't miss a single beat. " Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked glancing back at me and lingering just a second as his eyes flickered to my shoulders. As if he was looking something that was missing. He was probably wondering where my wings were.

" Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked and Bruce was the one to answer.

" He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier" Bruce claimed and I shared a confused look with Steve. We both obviously had no good idea what in the right mind a 'Coulomb barrier' was. Tony looked at him with interest " Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect" Tony replied. I was sort of beginning to lose understanding of the conversation.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet" Bruce stated as if it was somehow perfectly obvious. I mean I am a smart person but I am certainly not the kind of smart. Tony gave a grin " Finally, someone who speaks english" Tony said as he extended a hand towards Bruce to shake.

Bruce shook his hand a little hesitant but I could sense the mutual respect between the two men. "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster" Tony complimented and Bruce looked down awkwardly.

" Uh thanks" He replied right as Fury walked on the debriefing room. " Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube" Fury claimed assertively with his one eye fixed upon Bruce. "I was hoping you might join him" Fury insisted and Bruce nodded.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon" Steve noted.

" I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys?" Fury asked looking at Tony and Bruce would most likely be doing the research on the scepter we had confiscated from Loki.

Thor made a amused facial expression " Flying monkey? I do not understand" Thor replied. But thankfully Steve understood completely as Fury was referencing the movie 'The Wizard of Oz'. "I do! I understood that reference" Steve announced causing to Tony roll his eyes while Cap looked proud of himself. I figured it wasn't very frequent occurrence when Steve understood a movie franchise since he hadn't seen on in 70 years.

Tony looks to Bruce "Shall we play, doctor?" He asked and Bruce nodded. " Let play" He replied as the pair walked away probably heading to the labs where Loki's scepter was being kept.

Natasha stood up as well and then Steve left the room swiftly. Thor began speaking with Phil and I quickly opened up a new conversation with Natasha. " What now?" I asked as she stood up.

" Fury wants me to interrogate Loki but only through words. I'm going to try and see if I can get him to give something away" Natasha explained and I scoffed. When was that order issued? They were keeping to many secrets these days. " Don't you want backup?" I asked and Natasha shook her head as we began walking out of the room and towards where Loki was being kept.

" I'm just talking to him. If we do start forcing answers out of him than I will certainly request for your help" Natasha replied. She was meaning to say that if we ever needed to torture him for answers I would be involved. I doubted Thor would allow us to do this to his adopted brother and I would probably decline anyway. Years ago when I was an agent for The Hand I was well known for being a merciless interrogator when it came to torture tactics. Lets just say I had a broad imagination. In fact I used to think I enjoyed doing it but now just thinking about what I used to so to those people made me feel sick.

" Natasha what aren't you telling me? What does Fury really want with the Tesseract?" I asked seriously. Natasha sighed as if she had known I would eventually ask this. " I don't know everything about what Fury plans on using the tesseract for but I know it's not just for clean energy. Clint knew far more about what they were experimenting for. Its something called Phase 2" Natasha replied quietly so that the agent that walked by in the hall couldn't quite here. Phase 2? What was Phase 1?

" Experiments? What kind?" I asked as we went down a short flight of stairs. Natasha shrugged knowing she couldn't keep anything away from me. " I am not really sure and since when did you start asking so many questions" She asked turning the tables.

" Come on Nat, doesn't it seem a little weird. Don't you want to know?" I countered as we approached the doorway to the large room where Loki was being kept. Natasha narrowed her eyes as she looked up at me " I am curious but a good agent doesn't ask so many questions" She replied seriously. It was true, back when we were with The Hand it was all work with no questions asked. It always made killing easier normally. It made everything easier.

" Well I'm not an agent anymore" I argued stiffly but even this statement was sort of a lie. No matter how normal I tried to be, on the inside, deep down, there was always a secret agent trying to escape. The secret agent that The Hand created in my image." Harper I know that. I actually need you to help me with something else" Natasha claimed. I listened with interest as she began " I need you to keep an eye on Tony, Bruce, and maybe even Steve. They know something is fishy too" Natasha explained.

I nodded " Fine" I replied absently as this would obviously be easy work. " But you better get that psycho with a glow stick to talk" I replied gesturing to the door. Natasha gave smile, the kind that only Clint and I could get out of her. " Wish granted" She replied before opening the door and slipping inside silently. I didn't doubt she would be successful. She had a way of twisting and molding words when it came to interrogations. She could have you spilling your life regrets and deepest secrets within the first minute. Maybe she could even trick the god of trickery into giving something up.

I turned on my heel and headed straight towards the main lab where I suspected Tony and Bruce would be. I figured Bruce would try to lie low and not attract attention to himself but it seemed Tony lived for attention. I didn't see how Fury thought we could all be some sort of team just by recruiting us. We were mostly just strangers with different abilities that made us even stranger. There might have been this Holy Grail idea of his that we would all somehow coexist together but it seemed far too unrealistic to me.

I still wanted to know what Phase 2 was all about but for now I would let it slide.

We still had a world to save from Loki's supposed army from outer space.

( Authors note: I feel like this chapter was sooooo boring and I am sorry for putting you all through such a dull filler. But I had to it if the plot was going to make any sense. And I had to at least try to have some minor character development. I promise to not write another chapter like this again. Please comment below or heart if you enjoy :)