Magic | Steve Rogers

1

"Agent Stone, status report."

" Nothing good, sir. Requesting Director overview immediately."

" You know that you could just zap it, right?" Clint asks.

" Shut up," Lauren responds.

She sits up in the "nest" with Clint, needing some familiarity. Every time she comes to this base she feels queasy.

It takes a while, but eventually, Fury shows up.

"Talk to me doctor", Fury says to Dr.Selvig as he enters the lab.

"Director."

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

" The Tesseract is misbehaving."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's behaving."

"I assume you pulled the plug."

"She's an energy source. We turn off the powerm she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level..."

"We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."

"But we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful."

"Where's Agent Barton?"

"The Hawk? Up in his nest with Agent Stone , as usual"

"Agent Barton, Agent Stone, report."

Clint slides down his rope, meanwhile Lauren teleports down, slightly losing her balance as she does.

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things", Fury says.

"Well, I see better from a distance", Barton states as they walk to the Tesseract.

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?", Fury asks.

"No one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IM's. If there was any tampering, it wasn't at this end", Lauren says.

" At this end", Fury quotes.

" The Cube is a doorway to the other end of space. Doors open from both sides," She says.

Just then, the Tesseract begins to spike. It starts to shake the place, rocks rumbling. Lauren feels a stinging sensation in her eyes and a pounding in her head. She squeezes her eyes shut and cups her head with her hands

The Cube then opens a portal, leaving a tall dark haired man in a crouched position with a spear, then fires up the walls, creating a portal on the ceiling.The man slowly brings his head up, a creepy smile plastered on his face, as agents are slowly walking towards him with guns ready to fire. His eyes glance at Lauren for a moment as she tries to keep her eyes open.The man stands up and examines the spear in his hand, as if not knowing it was ever there in the first place.

"Sir, please put down the spear", Fury yells at the man.

The God of Mischief looks down at his spear and fires it towards an agent, but Clint pushes him out of the way. It hits Lauren, knocking her against a wall then onto the floor. She struggles to get up as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents fire at him, but Loki jumps in the air, almost completely un-phased by the bullets. He stabs one with the spear, then throws two daggers towards the other agents.

Lauren finally plants two feet on the ground and musters up all of her strength to create a force field around Loki so he cannot move or attack. He's genuinely surprised by this. He watches as she walks closer to him.

" Magic?" Loki asks.

" Close, it's Mage" She responds, " Magis magisque minuuntu."

The force field slowly becomes smaller and smaller, eventually bringing Loki to his knees. He chuckles, but easily breaks free. He fires the spear at the computers, stabs another agent, and as Clint, Fury and some other agents are firing at him, he makes a shield out of the spear and fires back at them. Lauren grabs her gun and shoots at the God, but he easily knocks it out of her hands. Loki kicks a man in a suit into the wall. He then stops, looking around the room, his breath coming out in short pants. Clint gets up and is about to punch Loki, but he grabs Clint and pins him against the bars.

"You have heart", Loki states, before bringing the tip of his spear and tapping Clint's heart with it. Causing Clint's eyes to go black for a moment and then becoming a crystal blue color, like the Tessaract.

Lauren watches as Fury grabs the Tesseract and puts it in a box, then closes it tightly.

"Please don't. I still need that", Loki says as he turns two other agents.

"This doesn't have to get any messier", Fury says other his shoulder facing away from Loki.

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

"Loki, brother of Thor", Selvig says, causing Loki to grow an angry expression on his face.

"We have no quarrel with your people", Fury states, putting his hand up to show he means no harm.

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

" Are you planning to step on us?" Lauren asks.

" Perhaps not you," He says with a grin, " I come with glad tidings of a world made free."

" Free from what?" Fury asks.

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart, you will know peace", Loki says, as he turns Eric Selvig.

"Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing", Fury states.

"Sir, Director Fury and Agent Stone are stalling. This place is about to blow, and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. They means to bury us," Clint informs his new boss.

"Like the pharaohs of old," Fury says.

"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this thing goes critical", Eric tells Loki from the computers.

"Well then", Loki says, then looks over at Clint.

" Barton..." Lauren says.

He ignores her and fires one bullet at Fury and two at Lauren. She wasn't able to put up a force field in time, so she went down with Fury. Clint takes the box and leaves with Fury.

" Agent Hill, do you copy? Agent Barton has turned!" Lauren shouts into the walkie as Fury helps her up.

" They have the Tesseract, shut them down," Fury says.

They make it outside in time to get into the chopper and chase Loki down. They fly over the stolen vehicle, and Fury starts shooting at it. Lauren tries to create a fireball, but can barely create a spark. Loki fires the scepter, and at the last minute, Fury grabs Lauren and jump out of the flaming chopper. They roughly land on the ground, sure to have bruises tomorrow morning.

" Director Fury? Do you copy?" Coulson asks.

"The Tessaract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"

" A lot of men still under. I don't know how many survivors," Maria says.

"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for the briefcase."

" Copy that."

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level 7. As of right now, we are at war."