Loki is forced into handcuffs and led through the helicarrier by S.H.I.E.L.D. police. On their way to the prison section, they pass the labs where Bruce Banner is analyzing the scepter he was just given. Loki looks through the glass and smiles wickedly at Bruce, who looks down and rubs his head to deal with the stress.

The adopted prince is pushed into a glass container and relieved of his handcuffs. Nick Fury walks into the room and up to the control panel of the cell.

"In case it's unclear. You try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass." Nick Fury presses a button on the panel and the floor opens below Loki's cage. "Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot."

Nick gestures to Loki as he says 'ant' and then to the control panel as he says 'boot'. Loki laughs. "It is an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Nick responds, trying to tell Loki how insignificant he is.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki's smirk widens as he turns his head to stare into the security camera. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you to call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

"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 because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Nick's voice changes its tone to sounding more sinister at the end.

"It burns you to come so close." Loki starts walking around his cell, trying to get Nick fired up. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all of mankind to share, and then to be reminded of what real power is."

Nick Fury holds his smile and starts walking out of the room. "Well, let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something."

In the main briefing room of the helicarrier, the assembled group of heroes watch the surveillance footage cut off. The last thing they see is Loki smirking at the camera. Silence takes over the room until Bruce can't take it anymore. "He really grows on you does he?"

"Loki is threatening this world and I'm going to find out why." Agent Virgo walks up to the table and leans forward on it, her black and purple hair falling over her shoulders.

"Pfft, I can tell you why." Lauren leans back on the grey wall and points her thumb over to Thor. "He's goldilock's brother."

"But waging war on an entire planet over a sibling rivalry?" Agent Virgo stands up straight and crosses her arms over her chest. "Am I the only one getting weird vibes here? Something doesn't add up."

"We can keep that as a possibility, but let's not jump to conclusions just yet." Steve says then turns to Thor. "So, what's his play?"

Thor looks down with his arms crossed, still a bit hurt that Loki is doing this to the planet he loves. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They are 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."

"An alien army?!" Wendy's eyes widen and looks at the others, but everyone seems to be taking this pretty calmly. The female clears her throat and shrugs her shoulders. "Yeah, sure, why not? I can fight an alien army in my sleep."

"How would he even get the army here, though? If no world has heard of this Chitauri group, then they can't be nearby." Lauren's green eyes glisten as she doesn't fully believe the story.

"The same way Loki got here in the first place." Bruce concludes. "So, he's opening another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor finally looks up, now startled upon learning the news that Erik has been brainwashed by Loki.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce quickly responds.

"He's a friend." Thor remembers the time where he came to Earth and first met the man in New Mexico. That was when he was almost killed by the Destroyer sent by his brother.

Natasha speaks up for the first time, but keeps slumped back in her seat. "Loki's got him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."

"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Agent Virgo presses the point she's trying to make.

Bruce shakes his head, not really wanting to think about Loki because it stresses him out. "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."

"And along with that magic stick he possesses, I can see why he fell victim to its power." Wendy points out.

"Have care how you speak." Thor uncrosses his arms, glaring at Wendy and Bruce. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha says in a matter of fact voice.

"He's adopted." Having no good counter argument for that, Thor uses his last main defensive comment to try and make Loki seem like a better man than he proves to be. Everyone in some form or another rolls their eyes at his statement.

After a second of thinking, Wendy recalls what happened just hours ago in Germany. "So, the gala event was just somewhat of a distraction? What purpose did that serve?"

"Speaking of that, why were you there?" Steve asks the brunette who is still in her fancy black dress from the party.

"I was invited. I debriefed Nick Fury on my situation already." Wendy pushes her wavy hair behind her shoulders to make her feel important. "I donated to the museum and they let me attend their annual gala."

"Well that's awfully convenient." Lauren smirks at Wendy. "The great Air Runner being at the location which Loki is going to attack."

"How'd you know that name? And don't call me that!" Wendy's face turns red out of anger at the mention of her code name, which was given to her by the military.

Lauren pulls out a small gold handbag from behind her back and tosses it to the angered girl. "You should really take better care of your purse. You dropped it when you were giving Loki a piece of your mind."

"Let's turn our focus back on the gala incident." Steve leans forward in his seat, not wanting a fight to break between the two girls.

"The iridium. What did they need the iridium for?" The door opens right when Bruce's question is asked.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony Stark walks inside along with Agent Coulson. Tony continues to wrap up his conversation with the agent. "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive."

Everyone seems surprised that Tony has entered the room except for Lauren and Thor, the former of which scoffs. Tony continues to explain to the rest of the group. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. No hard feelings, Point Break, you got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can stay open as wide and as long as Loki wants."

Tony walks up to the bridge of the helicarrier and looks around. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

The billionaire points out one of the agents who has Galaga displayed on his screen. He puts one hand over his eye and tries to figure out how the bridge works. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Maria Hill smiles as she thinks of Tony trying to work the computer. However, she knows he will get the hang of it in a split second.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony starts pressing buttons on the bridge's computers, but no one really cares. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asks, not changing her stance while keeping her poker face.

"Last night." A moment of silence passes by as the group tries to take in Tony's smart remark. "The packet, Selvig's notes, on the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the readings?"

"Look, even if there isn't a whole master plan with him getting caught on purpose, we have him right here. Why can't we just ask?" Agent Virgo crosses her arms and one hand plays with the short sleeve of her top.

"Look here, Princess." Tony quickly slipped a device onto the bridge while everyone was paying attention to Agent Virgo's question. "I know you're new around here, but interrogations don't go like that. Not that I didn't like our little showdown."

"And who won that showdown, exactly?" Agent Virgo's pink face gets a shade darker at being called princess.

"Let's not forget the one who caught Loki in the first place and did all the hard work for you." Tony leans backward on the railing and crosses his legs.

"I could have done that by myself, thank you very much! And for your information, I don't have to be here!" Agent Virgo clenches her fists at her side, ready to charge up her gloves and give Tony a taste of her lasers.

"Why are you here then?!" Tony's eyes glare at the pink skinned alien.

Before Agent Virgo can respond with some smart remark, Steve interrupts the argument. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He's got to heat the cube to one hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce easily does the math in his head.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony stands up and walks over to Bruce.

"Well, if he can do that then he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce also starts walking toward Tony, knowing that he is probably the only one in this room who knows what he's talking about.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony replies and holds out his right hand for Bruce to shake.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asks the group. Everyone is too shocked to say anything, and Agent Virgo is too angry, so they just listen as Tony and Bruce talk more on astrophysics.

Bruce takes Tony's hand, and Tony is very glad that he can finally meet someone that he can talk to about science stuff. "It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your 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."

The doctor looks down, kind of shocked that Tony brought up the subject so casually. "Uh, thanks."

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube." Nick enters the room and senses the uncomfortable atmosphere. "I was hoping you would join him. Who are you?"

Agent Virgo's eyes widen when she sees Nick's question was directed at her. "Call me Agent Virgo. I'm here to protect the Earth from Loki. Once he's gone, I'll be out of your way almost as if I was never here."

Nick keeps a poker face on as he looks at the pink skinned alien. He silently makes an oath to himself that he will get her information from her at some point in the future. In the meantime, he keeps the subject on the problem at hand. "We should start with an interrogation and figure out how to track the Tesseract."

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a H.Y.D.R.A. weapon." Steve remembers back in the forties when he was facing Red Skull and his powered up Tesseract weapons.

"I don't know about that, but it's powered by the cube." Nick confirms. "And I'd 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." Thor scratches his chin as he tries to figure out the metaphor.

"I do!" Steve's face lights up and he points at Nick. "I understood that reference."

Everyone is silent for a second except for Wendy who is trying hard to suppress a laugh. Tony turns to Bruce and asks, "Shall we play, Doctor?"

"Let's play some." Bruce gestures toward the door and leads him to the lab. Everyone else disperses to do their own thing. Steve and Lauren stay back in the briefing room, Adrena and Thor go over to the main control room of the helicarrier to look out the big windows, Natasha goes to the computers to get ready for her interrogation of Loki, and Wendy is called over by Coulson to talk about her story more in depth.

In the lab, Bruce and Tony set up Loki's scepter on a desk and start their scans of it. Bruce holds up a machine above the blue gem and turns to Tony. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But, it's gonna take weeks to process."

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Tony says without looking up from his screen.

Bruce laughs when he hears Tony speaking in his science language. "All I packed was a toothbrush."

Tony smiles and picks up something from his desk, walking away from the computer. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem." Bruce fidgets in his spot when he thinks about what happened in 2008.

"Well, I promise it's a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." With the sharp object, Tony sneaks up next to Bruce and pokes him in the side. Bruce jumps a bit and Tony looks closely at the doctor's eyes, trying to see if there is any sign of the Hulk. "Nothing?"

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve enters the room and glares at Tony for trying to aggravate Bruce.

Tony ignores the super soldier, still very intrigued by how much Bruce is able to control his emotions. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve walks up to Tony, clearly annoyed.

"Funny things are." Tony smirks and points his screwdriver at Steve.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve's voice calms down as he looks at Bruce apologetically. "No offense, doctor."

"No, it's alright." Bruce laughs nervously and goes back behind the desk that supports the scepter. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, big man!" Tony points at Bruce then turns to Steve. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem."

"You think I'm not?" Tony's face turns to an exaggerated hurtful expression. "Why did Fury call us in, and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

Steve pauses for a moment to clearly think about the situation. Surly Fury would have told them everything, right? "You think he's hiding something?"

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy! His secrets have secrets." Tony opens a bag of blueberries and pours a handful into his mouth before pointing at Bruce. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

Bruce stutters over his words and gestures over to the scepter. "Uh... I just want to finish my work here, and-"

"Doctor?" Steve's eyebrows raise when he sees the gamma radiation professional stumble over his words as if he was trying to hide something.

Bruce pauses for a minute and then finally looks up from his tablet, taking his glasses off. "A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it." Steve says, just wanting Bruce to get to the point.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce points at Tony who offers him some blueberries. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly..." Tony gives Steve an 'are you serious' look. "...building in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Bruce asks to make sure he got it right.

Tony swallows the blueberries in his mouth and nods. "It's just a prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

Bruce gets back to his point and gestures to Tony. "So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I probably should look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files." Tony goes over to another computer and starts typing some codes.

"I'm sorry, did you just say-" Steve is cut off by the billionaire.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Tony holds out the bag of blueberries for Steve to take one.

Captain America, however, only glances down at the bag. "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence is historically not possible." Tony points to himself when he refers to intelligence.

Steve takes a breath to calm himself down. "I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

Tony shoves a handful of blueberries into his mouth and smartly says, "Following is not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve smiles, knowing he struck a nerve.

Tony becomes irritated, but doesn't give Steve the satisfaction of losing his temper. "Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?"

"Steve," Bruce looks up from his work, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

"Just find the cube." Captain America clenches his fists and turns around. Once he gets out of the room, he takes a breath and actually considers what the two scientists were talking about. Now that he thinks about it, this whole thing does seem a bit fishy. Steve looks around for a second to make sure no one is following him before heading off to find an answer himself.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony rolls his eyes and goes back to his computer. "Wondering if they should have left him on ice."

Bruce laughs at the thought. "The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us."

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's going to blow up in his face, and I'm going to be there when it does." Tony hops onto a table on the side of the room and crosses his dangling legs.

"And I'll read all about it."

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Tony finishes off the bag of snacks and tosses it to the side.

"Ah, see, I don't get a suit of armor." Bruce tries to act casual, but his voice quivers a bit. "I'm exposed like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl it's way into my heart." Tony taps his glowing blue chest piece. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's apart of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege."

"But you can control it." Bruce points out.

Tony stands up and walks over to the opposite side of the screen. "Because I learned how."

"That's different."

Bruce goes to touch something on the computer screen, but Tony swipes all the data aside so it shrinks in the corner. "Hey, I've read all about your little accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So you're saying that the Hulk..." Bruce pauses and looks down at the mention of his alter ego's name. "...the other guy saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

A beat passes by before Tony responds, "I guess we'll find out."

"You might not like that." Bruce warns as Tony goes back to his computer.

"You just might."

Steve walks around many confusing hallways, but he acts like he knows where he's going. He doesn't want to look suspicious as he looks around for clues as to what S.H.I.E.L.D. wants with the Tesseract. He doesn't run into many people along the way, which makes him grateful.

The Captain finds a map on the wall and takes a long glance at it. He finds there is a storage room just a bit down the hall and to the right, and he immediately heads in that direction.

Lauren takes a deep breath and raises her hand to try and decipher the door's code again, but she feels a pair of hands clamp onto her shoulders. The blonde gasps and tries to scream, but she is turned around and the person puts a hand over her mouth. Lauren sighs in relief when she sees it's just Steve Rogers. The Captain puts a finger up to his lips as a sign to stay quiet. Lauren nods and Steve lets go of her.

Steve slides the door open with his hands, letting him and Lauren enter. He closes the door behind them so that no one will suspect anything. Lauren's heart rate settles down from being surprised by the Captain. "And I thought I was the only one who didn't think something was right."

"Stark and Banner got me thinking about it too." Steve uses his super strength to jump onto a railing on the second story of the room. Lauren climbs onto some boxes and jumps, reaching her hands up so Steve can catch her and pull her up.

Lauren's anxiety starts swelling up in her chest as she sees what's inside the boxes. "Our problems just got a whole lot bigger."

Steve pulls out a long, bulky gun from one of the open boxes and turns it around in his hand. "There's no slot for bullets or anything. What are they supposed to run on?"

"I think this is why S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted the Tesseract." Lauren pulls out a smaller gun and spins it around her fingers. "This is what they've really been working on."

The information sinks into Steve's brain and his face is filled with concern and worry. He holds the big gun under his arm and grabs Lauren's wrist. "We have to get Stark."

Lauren nods, agreeing with the Captain, and the two hop down from the catwalk railing. Together, they run toward the exit to show Tony and Bruce what they found.

Agent Virgo and Thor stand at the far end of the helicarrier where no one can hear them, which gives them a lot of privacy. After a couple minutes of just staring out the window, Thor looks over at Agent Virgo. "You look very familiar. Have I seen you around before?"

"Maybe you're thinking of the Krylorian race. They have distinct pink skin. I've never crossed paths with you, or else I'd remember." Agent Virgo continues to stare out the window despite the fact that Thor turned to look at her.

"No, the Krylorains have darker pink skin. Yours is from... what is it called?" Thor scratches his chin, now beginning to remember something about a race of aliens who lived on a remote planet.

He won't guess what it is. There's no way- "Rhebian!"

Agent Virgo is beyond shocked that Thor was able to guess her race. She stiffens and turns to the brother of Loki. "H-how do you know that?!"

"My father would tell me stories about your species and how you were a race of peaceful people. However, you were attacked by an unknown force, but before the Asgardians could come and help, everything was already destroyed. We thought you all went extinct!" Now that Thor says it out loud, he can't believe that he's talking to an actual Rhebian. "Everyone kind of forgot about your kind as the months turned into years..."

Agent Virgo takes a shaky breath and turns back toward the window, her white eyes becoming a bit teary. "I am the last..."

"I'm sorry to bring up the painful subject, Agent Virgo." Thor folds his hands in front of him and looks down.

"Adrena."

"What?" Thor looks toward the girl, not really having caught what she said.

"My real name is Adrena." The pink skinned alien blinks away her tears and turns toward Thor, smiling at him. "But please don't tell the others. I don't want them to know."

"You have my word, Adrena, as prince of Asgard." Thor pats his right fist over his heart and nods toward the girl. Adrena's smile brightens and the two start looking out the window again.

Not even a minute passes before they are confronted by Black Widow. "The interrogation is going to begin. You're welcome to tune in by accessing one of the surveillance computers."

"Hold on." Agent Virgo's expression turns back to her business face. "I want to question him as well."

Natasha nods and gestures for Adrena to follow her. "You can go after me."

Wendy wraps up her meeting with Phil Coulson. The agent closes the girl's file, which now contains all her information. Phil stands up to exit the room. "I'm sure we can pull a couple of strings. We can get your suit here in about five minutes."

"My suit?" Wendy turns her seat around to give Coulson a confused expression.

Phil nods and twists the doorknob. "If we get into a debacle I think it would be better to handle it in your suit rather than your dress."

Wendy looks down and sees her back dress and golden jewelry. She nods and Coulson leaves to get that situated. Never in a million years did Wendy ever think she was going to put on that suit again. Well, this is what she gets for getting herself mixed up with a group of superpowered beings.