Bruce Banner was in his new lab, studying on his new tools and things when the door at the end of the hallway slid open. In walked a parade of geared up SWAT, leading the captive Loki to his confinement. Banner watched in amazement and unfortunately discovered that Loki was as aware of who he was as Banner knew Loki. The god from Asgard smirked at the scientist as he passed, and Banner knew bad times were coming.

The guards deposited Loki to his cage as Fury supervised from the control panel.

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass." He tapped buttons which lead to a giant vent opening under the glass cage. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot."

The roles may be reversed, but Loki didn't threaten easy.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." He knew enough about Midgard to know of their surveillance mechanisms.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast, makes play to be the man. How desperate are you? To call on 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 cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A world for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well let me know if real power wants a magazine or something." Fury said, walking away.

The screens turned off and Banner stood nervously scratching his hives.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor stood resting one arm on the other, and something on it picked at Steve's mind.

"He has an army called the Chitauri, they're not of Asgard nor 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 army, from outer space." Steve realized.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked in startled recognition.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Nat informed, "along with one of ours."

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

"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."

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted."

"No, I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Entered Tony Stark, walking with Coulson as he put forth his offer to keep love alive; for a weekend, at least.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants." Tony walked up onto the control deck, secretly planting a device as he did so.

"Raise the masts. Jib the topsails. That man is playing Gallaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did. How does Fury even see these?" Tony asked in frustration, trying to see through one eye.

"He turns." Hill answered.

"Sounds exhausting."

"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."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night." Said the man exhausted with turning. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve wasn't a man of science, he was definitely much more of a soldier.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

Tony was grateful for smart company.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect."

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony exclaimed, introducing Banner as a man of English.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve was not part of their circle.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. 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."

"Thanks." Not many people had complements for the Hulk.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury was finally able to come in. "I was hoping you might join him."

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

"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."

The reference evaded the god of thunder. "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve was proud to announce as Tony rolled his eyes.

"I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony begged to be in a scientific environment.

"This way, Sir." Bruce lead him out.

As the science bros walked out, Steve got up to have a talk with Thor once he realized what kept picking his brain.

"Your arm; that star. I've seen it before." Steve pointed to the starburst on Thor's bicep.

Thor turned his head to try to see what Steve was talking about.

''Tis only a flesh wound. I fight a lot."

"No it's not. Someone burned it on you."

"Choose your next words wisely," Thor threatened, not in the mood for the subject.

"Someone close to you, a girl. Wizard. Kiera"

"Her name was Eira!" Thor yelled, stepping in Steve's space. "You can not possibly know of what you speak."

"You're the jolly blonde giant."

"I've been called many names, this one I do not recall."

"Wait hang on a second," Coulson interjected, "are we talking about your sister here?"

"Eira is my niece." Thor replied to the question not asked to him.

"Kiera's my little sister. And if she's your niece, that would make her..."

"Loki's daughter. With Queen Sigyn, may she find peace."

"Your sister is Loki's daughter?" Fury brought her up, much to the dismay of her brother.

Steve's paced over and towered himself in Fury's face.

"You so much as look at her off, you're gonna need more patches."

"Enough with your petty squabble!" Thor broke it up. "If my Eira is alive as you say, then you will take me to her this moment."

"That's gonna be a trick. She's in the hospital, and she's not exactly SHIELD's biggest fan," Steve filled in, burning death glares at Fury.

Thor was definitely not in the interest to hear more threats against his niece and stormed over, grabbing Fury by the collar.

"And what have you done to earn the wrath of an Asgardian princess?!"

"Yeah, I'd finally like to know what happened?"

Fury managed to push off Thor and put his hands up in defeat.

"We were tracking you, we had energy tracers. It picked up residue in your sister's town. We watched them for a while, then decided to act on it one day. We pulled her mom into a subtle interrogation and she quickly caught on, but decided to protect her daughter. She drove home in a frantic, looking back at her tails. Skipped a light and a semi drove through her car. Not my proudest moment."

"We will need Eira to speak with Loki. Persuade him." Thor was impatient to meet Eira.

"Not a chance. Plus, she's weak; her powers just surged through."

"Loki will cause no harm to his own child. I suspect him to melt with a glimpse of her. He has not been with his daughter for a time too long by Asgardian measures"

"You go get your sister, Captain." Fury asked, "meanwhile I'll try my own interrogation. And take Dr. Banner with you if he's done. He might not want to be around."