If you haven't seen the outfits for the 3 OCs yet, they are in the previous chapter at the top.

~~~

Director Fury rushes into the detention center and sees Agent Coulson propped up against the wall, a stab wound though his chest. Fury kneels down in front of his agent and Coulson says breathlessly, "Sorry, boss. They got rabbited."

"Just stay awake." Fury sees that Coulson's eyes are becoming misty. He can't seem to focus on anything, so Fury moves Coulson's face to make him look at himself. "Eyes on me."

Adrena shakes, pain filling her every muscle. Her head pounds and blood rushes through her ears as she tries to open her eyes. The bright light makes her head hurt even more, which makes her almost pass out again. Adrena uses all the strength she has to prop herself up on her knees. She slowly opens her eyes, tears lining the rims of her eyelids. Taking short, quick breaths, Adrena manages to make her way over to Coulson and Fury.

"I... can... heal..." Adrena manages to say. If only she left the Hulk to Thor, she would have been able to get here sooner and keep Coulson from getting stabbed. Adrena wraps her hands around one of Coulson's cold ones and shakes as she tries to use her healing powers.

"I'm clocking out here." Coulson says in a tired voice. His expression turns to one of exhausted, like he just wants to sleep.

Adrena keeps trying to use her healing powers, but she is in too much of a weakened state and Coulson's wound is too great. She suddenly realizes that she isn't able to save him. She blinks and she sees a member of her old crew dying in her arms. Adrena rapidly blinks again to get the image away. She knows that she can't heal him, but she can dull his pain until he's gone.

"Not an option." Fury doesn't accept it, however, still believing that Coulson can make it. The medics are coming, he just needs to last a bit longer.

"It's okay, boss. This was never going to work." Agent Coulson slowly looks at Adrena, a bit of fear in his eyes. His grip tightens around her hands. "If they didn't have something... to..."

Phil Coulson's hand goes limp in Adrena's hold. Nick Fury stands up and Adrena respectfully closes Coulson's eyelids over his faded eyes. She backs away as the medics come in with stretchers and equipment. She lets them pick the agent up and carry him away.

Fury puts his hand up to his earpiece. He knows he has to notify everyone about what happened. "Agent Coulson is down."

Agent Hill is being treated for a gash in her head when she hears the news. She waves the medic away, not believing what Fury is saying. Another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, assumed to be head of the medical department, says, "Paramedics are on their way."

"They're here." Nick says. Everyone who is still on the helicarrier also listens in. "They called it."

It takes a while, but Fury manages to gather the remaining heroes into the briefing room besides Natasha. Steve, Adrena, and Tony all sit at the table. Everyone has devastated faces, Adrena and Tony more than the others. For Tony, he knew Phil the most out of anyone else besides Nick. As for Adrena, Phil saved her from being shot in the detention center by Loki's guard. She never actually thanked him.

Nick pulls out a few cards that seem to have blood stains on them. He holds them up for everyone to see. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them."

Fury throws the cards on the table, making blood smear on the glass. Steve picks one up and flips it over to see the cards Phil wanted him to sign. A lump forms in his throat and he doesn't trust himself to speak.

"We're dead in the air up here." Nick looks out the window, his hands folded behind his back. "Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor, Thompson, Evans. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."

The three heroes now realize that half of their team is gone, maybe for good. Bruce could have definitely survived that fall, but what about the others? Could something have happened to Wendy? Did Lauren die from her fall? Was Thor killed in the cage that dropped? So many questions and no answers at all. They could have... could have permanently lost half of their team.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." Fury sighs, finally admitting what he was planning to do. He turns so his side is facing the table. "I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was planning something even riskier."

"There was an idea, and Stark and Thompson knew this, called the Avengers Initiative." Fury fully turns toward the group, his hands still folded and his voice a little less stern than usual. "The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Tony stands up, not wanting to hear anymore, and walks out of the room. Steve keeps staring at the cards, and Adrena looks down at the table where her folded hands rest.

Fury sighs and looks back out the window. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

Thor stumbles over to where his hammer rests in the mound of dirt and grass. He reaches his hand out to take it, but then clenches his fists. He remembers when his father had cast him out from his home, leaving him unable to pick up his hammer. He wonders if he is worthy now. Worthy enough to fight his own brother, enough to save this planet.

"You fell out of the sky." Bruce hears a voice that sounds so far away, and yet so near. Like an echo trying to reach its source.

Bruce opens his eyes, seeing that he's in a pile of rubble and bricks. As he looks up, he sees a monsterous size hole in the ceiling. Bruce looks around and notices a security guard standing on the rubble. "Oh no. Did I hurt anybody?"

"Nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons, though." The old man security guard chuckles a bit at his own joke.

"Lucky." Bruce mumbles, though the guard hears him.

"Or just good aim." The guard defends Bruce, trying to give him some credit. "You were awake when you fell."

"You saw?" Bruce asks, bewildered that the man isn't scared of him at all. Or at least, he doesn't seem to be.

"The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green, and buckass nude. Here." The man tosses down a pair of pants, which Bruce starts putting on. "I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular sized fellow."

"Thanks." Bruce looks up at the man and finishes putting his legs through the fabric. He stands up to button the waist together.

"Are you an alien?"

The man's question takes Bruce by surprise. Not only is this man unfazed by seeing an enormous green monster turn into a human being, but he is totally up for the idea of there being aliens as well. "What?"

"From outer space." The man explains further like it was supposed to be obvious. "An alien."

"Oh." Bruce accepts that he heard the man correctly the first time and finishes tying up his pants. "No."

"Well then, son, you've got a condition." The security guard concludes. Bruce nods, not really knowing what to say to that. He is yet again reminded that the Hulk was a mistake, a poison, a mere condition.

Clint struggles against his restraints as he sits down in the medical chair. Voices scream in his ears more loudly than he's ever heard anyone talk. He shakes his head to try and get the voices away while also pulling on the chair restraints.

Finally, a voice that's familiar to him speaks softly, piercing through the noise. "Clint, you're gonna be alright."

"You know that? Is that what you know?" Clint's eyes turn from their normal sky blue to crystal irises. Back and forth as Clint desperately fights for the control of his own mind. Hearing Natasha's voice through the mix helps him get a hold, and he pushes Loki's mind control out. "I gotta go in, though. I have to flush him out."

"We don't have that long, it's going to take time." Natasha walks over to the sink and wrings water out of a wet towel.

"No, you don't understand." Clint takes deep breaths and stops pulling in the restraints, the voices dying away. He looks up at the ceiling. "Have you ever had someone take you head and play? Pull you out, and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

Natasha walks over to his side and sits in a chair. "You know that I do."

"Why am I back? How'd you get him out?" Clint's voice seems to be more steady now that he has control of his mind. He finally feels peace as the voices stop completely.

"Cognitive recalibration." Natasha gives Clint one of her rare smiles. "I hit you really hard on the head."

"Thanks." Natasha starts unfastening the arm holders that hold Clint in place. The male's voice turns into a whisper that's so soft he can't hear it. "Tasha, how many agents-"

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself, Clint." Natasha gives him a stern look and stares at him with hard eyes. "This is Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for."

"Loki, he got away?" Clint's heart drops at the news. Of course, he thinks that it was his fault for helping the villain escape. No doubt he managed to get the scepter as well.

"Yeah. Don't suppose you know where?" Natasha stands up and fills up a cup of water for her partner.

Clint shakes his head, but then remembers that Natasha is facing the sink. "Didn't need to know. Didn't ask. He's gonna make his play soon, though. Today."

"We have to stop him." Natasha hands Clint the cup.

"Yeah? Who's 'we'?" Clint asks before taking a big gulp of his water. He didn't realize how hungry he was. Loki apparently didn't think it was necessary to feed his minions, as he probably would have just disposed of them later anyway.

"I don't know. Whoever's left." Natasha sits down next to him, and Clint gets the hint. Whoever is left, that means some of the team didn't make it out of that past fight.

Clint chuckles and drinks the rest of his water. "Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket then I'd sleep better, I suppose."

"Now you sound like you." Natasha smiles and takes the empty cup back from him.

"But, you don't." Clint looks at Natasha who refuses to meet his eyes. "You're a spy, not a soldier, and now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't just..." Natasha glances up at him, but knows she will crack if she keeps looking at his face. She looks down into the empty cup that rests in her hands.

"Natasha?" Clint has only seen his partner this broken up this much once, right before she became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

"I've been compromised." Clint nods at Natasha's explanation, knowing full well what she means. "I got red in my ledger, and I'd like to wipe it out."

"For a person who can fly, you think you'd know how to land." Lauren presses her hands on her back, trying to stretch it out and make it crack. She scans the area around her. Just grass and a couple of stray trees as far as the eye can see.

"That's an unusual way of saying, 'Thank you for saving my life'." Wendy gasps as she sits up. She took most of the impact from the fall, but luckily her suit was designed to withstand rough landings.

Lauren sighs as she stares out on the horizon. Wendy is right, she did save her life. But, why? All Lauren did was fight with her whenever they were in the same room. Lauren blinks and turns to Wendy. "Sorry for arguing with you. I've just never really trusted others besides my parents since..."

Wendy's expression turns soft, and she lowers her face mask. She's read Lauren's file, so she knows what she went through when she first acquired her powers. "It's fine. Friends don't come easy for me either. Everyone I know is trying to make a deal with me to gain money."

Lauren smiles knowingly. "I have two friends who are always busy."

"Want to change that?" Wendy holds out a hand for Lauren to take. Lauren eyes Wendy's hand, not fully trusting her that much. "Look, if we are gonna work together, you have to know I got your back."

"I don't know." Lauren looks down at her feet, remembering the last time she trusted someone other than her parents. Except for Troy and Luke, of course, but they were friends of her dad.

"Tell you what, let's make a deal." Lauren looks up at Wendy as the brunette puts the suggestion out. "The next time you fall off something, whether it be a tall building or a helicarrier, if I don't catch you then you can leave the team. But, if I do catch you, then you have to stay."

Lauren looks from Wendy's blue eyes to her outstretched hand. At first she's conflicted, but then she thinks that she shouldn't be. What's the harm in making this deal? It sounds fair, almost more favorable for Lauren.

Tony leans forward against the railing, staring at where Loki's cell used to be. Adrena came in about a minute ago and sat down, leaning against the wall. She, too, looks at where the cell was. She imagines Thor tumbling down without an escape. None of them say a word, but they do turn their heads when Steve opens the door.

"Was he married?" Steve asks, trying to get the conversation started. He knows Phil's death has impacted Tony and Adrena the most.

"No, there was a cellist I think." Tony remembers the last time Phil came over to his tower. While he was getting started on debriefing the Tesseract's powers, he heard Pepper mention something about wanting to hear more about the cellist.

"I'm sorry." Steve understands that those words mean next to nothing by themselves, so he continues, "He seemed like a good man."

Tony gives a tsk noise and shakes his head. "He was an idiot."

"Why? For believing?" Steve can't believe Tony's attitude. Out of all the times to not be a jerk, why can't he let his ego go for just a moment?

"For taking on Loki." Tony puts his hands behind his back and starts walking away.

"He was doing his job." Steve defends the dead agent. He would have done the exact same thing if he was in Coulson's shoes. Coulson was probably taking orders from someone anyway.

"Pfft." Tony puts his hand up to his forehead, but then brings it back to his side. He doesn't want to lose his composure in front of the great Captain America. "He was out of his league. He should have let her fight him."

Adrena should be mad at Tony for talking about Coulson like that, but she just feels numb. Mentally and physically. Her healing powers don't work on herself, so her head still feels like it's splitting open. She knows that Tony's voice isn't sarcastic or anything of that matter, but suggestive like he's bargaining. Like a child refusing to believe that their parent has died. Or like herself when she tried to save her own planet.

"He saved me." Adrena says loud enough for the others to hear. "I wasn't quick enough, I was tricked into letting my guard down. Just like last time..."

Steve kneels down beside Adrena and puts his hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him. "Sometimes there isn't a way out."

Tony's voice makes the two turn to him. "Yeah, and how did that end up for him?"

Steve stands up, Adrena following him. The Captain walks up closer to Tony. "Is this the first time you lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers!" Tony turns around toward Steve, his eyes glowing dangerously with hatred and malice over the use of that word. He takes a breath and softens his gaze. "I am not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does, but right now we have to put that behind us and get this done." Steve understands that Tony is feeling guilt and sorrow for their lost friend as he looks at the bloodstain on the wall, but he also knows that they need Tony Stark in this fight in order to win. "Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can get together a list-"

"He made it personal." Adrena and Tony say at the same time. White and hazel eyes widen as Adrena and Tony understand what's going on.

"That's not the point." Steve looks at Tony with a dumbfound expression, not entirely getting what Adrena and Tony are saying.

"That is the point! That's Loki's point! He hit us all right where we live, why?" Tony smacks the back of one of his hands into the palm of the other as he tries to catch onto something he's missing.

"To tear us apart." Steve says without much thought. Honestly, it seemed pretty obvious at what Loki's motive was by just looking at their state now.

"Mentally and physically." Adrena starts to pick up on what Tony is saying. "He knows he can't take us all on together, so he had to split us up first. It makes perfect sense. Everything he said was manipulative. He knew we would fight because we couldn't get past our... differences." Adrena points out the mental aspect of Loki's plan.

"And take away half our team: Lauren, Bruce, Thor, and Wendy." Steve points out the physical way Loki managed to separate them. "Gambling on the rest of us breaking under the loss."

"Yeah. He had to conquer his greed." Adrena puts a hand on her chin, now becoming confused. "But, if he knows that he has to take us out to win, what's his next play?"

Tony points at Adrena, making her face turn to one of shock. "He wants an audience."

"Right." Steve nods, finally understanding where this is going. "I caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is opening night and Loki is a full-tilt diva." Tony starts ranting, which is what happens when he is onto some big discovery. "He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the sky with his name plastered-"

Tony cuts himself off, his eyes widening as he realizes what Loki's plan is. He looks at Adrena and Steve, both of which wait for him to continue. Instead of explaining, Tony lowers his hands and says, "Son of a bitch."

Steve, now in full uniform, makes his way over to the medical bay where he knows Natasha is. He enters the room without knocking, making her know this is urgent. "We need to go."

"Go where?" Natasha asks, eager to know what he found out.

"Tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" Steve asks, pointing his thumb backward to where the jets are lying outside.

Before Natasha can answer, the bathroom door opens revealing Clint. "I can."

Steve looks at Natasha who nods, signaling that the real Clint is back and ready to fight. Steve eyes Clint, now able to trust him. "You got a suit?" Clint nods at Steve's question. "Then suit up."

KRACKABOOM!

Thor lifts up his hammer to the sky. Dark storm clouds swirl around him, lightning striking the silver hammer. He feels the pulsing lightning strike his heart, but it only fuels him further. Thunder follows the lightning as it always should.

WOOSH!

Lauren takes Wendy's hand and shakes it. The wind picks up, making the two females' hair go crazy. Lauren takes her hand back and ties her mask around her eyes. She presses the circular golden metal center of her belt, making her spear materialize from the back of her belt. She takes it off and stabs it in the ground, her eyes glowing bright green with the help of her powers. Wendy's feet leave the ground and she raises her hands above her head, making the wind blow even more menacingly.

SLING!

Steve puts on his helmet and throws his shield over his back, completing his outfit. Natasha slips on her Black Widow gauntlets. They charge up once the rounds are in place, letting out a blue zapping glow. Clint refills his quiver and attaches it to his back. He pulls on his gloves and puts his tiny hearing aid back in, which also has a communicator. Tony works on his Iron Man helmet, giving it enough power to turn on. Adrena downs some water which had painkillers inside. She attaches her blasters to her wrists and charges up her rocket boots.

Captain America, Agent Virgo, Black Widow, and Hawkeye walk up next to each other to a jet that's stationed in the hangar. Agent Virgo thought about flying outside the jet with Iron Man, but she decided to save the reveal of her powers to Loki for when she absolutely needs to use them.

A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent walks up to Captain America and says, "Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be in here-"

The Captain holds up his hand to cut the guy off. They are in a time crunch, and they have to act now. "Son, just don't."

Fury looks out the window to the outside station of the hangar. He doesn't know if he got through to the team he assembled together, but he has to admit that he tried. Agent Hill walks up to him. "Sir."

"Agent Hill?" Fury glances at the agent from the corner of his eye.

"Those cards." Maria brings up the topic that she wished to address the moment she heard Fury's speech. "They were in Coulson's locker. Not in his jacket."

"They needed the push." Fury looks down at the bloodied cards in his hands. His right hand bandaged over because of a wound by a knife. Suddenly, one of the jets leaves the harbor of the helicarrier outside of Fury's window, followed by Iron Man. "They found it. Get communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything."

"Yes, sir." Maria nods and walks over to her station.

Whatever the group is going to do, whatever they are after, they better do it right this time. Although separated, Thor in the meadow, Bruce in the ruined building, Wendy and Lauren in the field, and the rest in the air heading toward Loki, they are stronger than ever.

Bruce was right, they are a time bomb, and Loki pushed their buttons, thinking that he cut the wires out. But one should know, that once you get these heroes riled up, nothing can stand in their way.

Even if they are separated, they are never divided.