Kate, Bruce, and Cap all follow Nat inside, Cap walking next to Kate. She resists the urge to squeal, then noticing how amazed he is when they enter the control room.

"Awesome, right?" she says.

He nods, still looking around. "Pretty awesome..." They move over towards the large, round table in the back of the room where Nat and Bruce are standing.

Fury walks over to them. "Gentlemen, ladies."

Cap passes Fury some money before he walks off, observing. Kate wants to follow — and ask why he's giving Fury money — but stays put, hoping some time away will help her be more calm the next time they speak. Best to avoid another incident where she brings up things that are painful to him...

Fury goes to Bruce. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely," he replies. "So, uh, how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"Where are you with that?"

Coulson walks over. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Kate sighs. "That's still not gonna find them in time."

"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asks.

Fury raises a brow. "How many are there?"

Bruce shrugs out of his jacket. "Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

Fury looks at Kate. "Dr. Carson, would you show Dr. Banner to the laboratory?"

"So now we're formal when you want to impress, huh, Fury?" Kate says, causing him to roll his eye. She turns to Bruce. "You're gonna love it. Everything's been set up exactly to my specifications."

He doesn't seem convinced. "I mean, I do biochem, but we'll need different specs to find the Tesseract."

"I told you I do more than chem here, Dr. Banner. We have all the specs."

~_~_~_~_~

Kate and Bruce begin working for about half an hour — setting things up, getting at least part of it running — before Nat walks in. "They got a hit on Loki in Stuttgart. We're moving out."

"We?" Bruce asks in disbelief. "I never agreed to-"

Nat shakes her head. "No, you can stay. He wants Kate."

She groans. "Seriously? It's not like he's a fire monster or anything."

"Yeah, but Fury said you really scared him when he took the Tesseract. I'm sure the sarcasm helped, not to mention you nearly burned his eyebrows off and stole his spear from what I understand."

Kate shrugs, reluctant to leave the lab. "Best to keep up the illusion for him, don't you think?"

"Okay, it's your call." Nat turns to go, her tone taking on a tantalizing air. "But Cap is going."

Kate pauses, biting her lip. She really wants to stay and research, get to know Bruce and what he knows, and she definitely wants to keep Fury from making field missions a regular thing for her.

But it's Captain America.

"Fine, but I'm not putting on a super suit or whatever." She pulls off her lab coat and follows Nat out. "Catch you later, Dr. Banner."

"Yeah, I'll, uh... keep things running," he replies.

Kate and Nat grab comms then head out to a Quinjet, meeting Cap and the pilot there. The ride is quiet; Nat is in the cockpit with the pilot, and Cap seems lost in thought. Preparing for a mission — that Kate is joining him on. She resists the urge to squeal again, especially as he's wearing the suit SHIELD made for him. Stars and stripes, not to mention the shield. Kate wants to hold it, but she doesn't ask.

It doesn't take terribly long to reach Stuttgart what with the Quinjet's speed and clear air space.

Loki is outside a large, ornate building, copies of himself surrounding a large crowd of kneeling people. Nat hits some buttons, and Loki's voice fills the jet. "Is not this simpler?" he asks, walking through the crowd. "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power... for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

An elderly man in the crowd stands. "Not to men like you."

"There are no men like me."

"There are always men like you."

The Quinjet flies over the crowd, disguised, as Loki lifts his spear. "Look to your elder, people." The back opens, and Cap grabs his shield. "Let him be an example."

Loki fires, and Cap jumps down, blocking the blast. As the jet flies to an empty section of the street, lowering to let Kate out, they hear Cap say, "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

Kate gets out, jogging over as people begin to rise. Loki is on the ground — the blast must've reflected back to him — but he stands. "The soldier. A man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time."

"This is so cool," Kate whispers, allowing herself a quiet squeal.

The pilot reveals the jet, hovering just behind the crowd, a large gun aimed at Loki dropping down. Nat's voice emits from a PA. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Instead, he fires at the Quinjet, but it quickly gets out of the way. The crowd begins to run, no longer surrounded. Cap throws the shield at Loki, hitting his helmet — a new, horned addition to his ensemble. Kate glances at the fight while ushering people to safety, wanting them away before she attempts anything herself. After a short exchange of blows, Loki hits Cap in the stomach, knocking him back. But of course he gets back up, throwing the shield at Loki, who knocks it away. Cap isn't fazed, resorting to pure hand-to-hand.

But Loki hits him in the back and knocks him down again, and Kate is sure the crowd is now at a safe distance. As much as she doesn't want to be in the field and as much as she believes in Cap, she knows she should go help — and thinks Fury is right about Loki being scared of her. Or at least wary.

Loki places the bottom end of his spear on Cap's head, on the back of his helmet, holding him down. "Kneel."

Kate runs over, her hands aflame. "Not today!" She throws a fire ball at Loki.

He dodges it, that creepy smile on his face again. "Ah, the fiery one."

Kate backs up as Cap gets to his feet, going to hit Loki again, but he turns, dodging, grabbing Cap and tossing him to the side. He lifts the spear, jerking it back, firing at Kate. Panicking, she hits the ground, scraping her hands as she catches herself, but the scars there are tough.

"This guy's all over the place," she hears Nat say in comms as she gets up.

Before she can respond, she's throwing another fire ball and hearing a voice in her comms, but secondhand. Like it's playing in the Quinjet, coming through the speakers. "Agent Romanoff. You miss me?" Rock music fills Kate's ear.

Cap gets up, glancing at the sky, but Loki, his armor singed, hits him back with the spear, heading for Kate again. She steels herself, planting her feet, raising her shaky, flaming hands. She notices fear in his eyes as he holds the spear out in front of him. But before he can fire, two blasts hit him, knocking him to the side and causing him to drop the spear as Iron Man flies in. He lands on one knee then stands, aiming rockets, blasters, missiles, everything at Loki.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," Iron Man says. Cap walks over, shield in hand, and Kate decides to join them, her hands up on Iron Man's other side. Loki looks at them for a moment before standing down, his helmet disappearing as his hands raise. Iron Man puts his explosive toys away. "Good move."

"Mr. Stark," Cap says.

"Captain," Iron Man replies. He turns to Kate, who extinguishes her hands. "Dr. Carson. Even more ginger in person, I see."

She nods to him, pushing down her slight excitement. "Tony Stark. Nat's told me a lot."

"Disregard all of it," he says. "Awesome work, by the way. You won that Nobel prize a few years back, but you didn't show up to get it. I thought you dropped off the face of the Earth."

She shrugs. "I was way beyond that at that point. Or... beneath it. Not the point. Anyway."

"Loving the blowtorches." He glances at Cap again. "Let's get Rudolph up there, shall we?"

As he goes to Loki, Cap looks at Kate, searching for her weapons. "Blowtorches?"

Kate lights up again, though with smaller flames, not quite meeting Cap's eyes. "Just my hands. It's, uh, been like this for a bit..."

He nods. "Huh... Cool."

The jet lands, and they handcuff Loki, hauling him and his spear onto it. Tony joins them for the ride back, which is much more conversational than the ride there.

After Nat informs Fury of what happened, he asks, "Is he saying anything?"

"Not a word," Nat replies.

"Just get him here. We're low on time."

Kate glances at him, finds his eyes on her. She scoots closer to the middle of the jet, where Tony and Cap are standing. "I don't like it," Cap says.

"What?" Tony replies. "Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"

Kate thinks on it, as she was too relieved to really do so before. She supposes it could have something to do with him being wary of her... But if he's that wary of her, why does he keep looking at her, and why did he run at her? Still, she can't deny the fear she saw his eyes.

"I don't remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop," Cap says.

Tony shrugs, gesturing to Kate. "Well, the match here burned him up. And you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing, Pilates?"

Cap's brows furrow. "What?"

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

Kate raises a brow, looking at Cap, who frowns. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

Kate snorts. "You got that right. Though I did you know were coming." Just not the answers to nearly every question she'd ever asked Fury.

Suddenly, thunder rumbles, lightning cracks. It gets incredibly loud. "Where's this coming from?" Nat asks.

Kate looks at Loki, who's leaned forward, looking outside with a wary expression. Cap notices, too, asking, "What's the matter? Are you scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki sighs.

Kate's eyes widen as she realizes what he means. "Wait-"

Something hits the top of the jet from outside, and she knows it's Thor. Tony puts his helmet on and walks to the back, opening the door. Kate watches from behind him, waiting for their latest, previously off the grid addition, excitement building.

"What are you doing?!" Cap shouts, just before Thor lands inside, hammer and all. Tony revs up to blast him, but before Kate can stop him, Thor hits him with the hammer, forcing her to dodge a falling Iron Man. Without a glance at anybody else, Thor grabs Loki and leaves the way he came.

Tony stands. "Now there's that guy."

"It's Thor!" Kate shouts, excitement evident in her voice.

Cap looks at her. "Is he a friendly?"

She nods. "Yeah, yeah, he's totally cool!"

"Doesn't matter," Tony says, heading for the open door again. "If he loses Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Cap shouts.

Tony turns around. "I have a plan. Attack." He blasts out, flying to follow, making Kate wish she had the ability. If she could see Thor, she could fix this — but, of course, he wouldn't stop and chat before he stole their prisoner.

Cap grabs a parachute, and Nat, turning around, says, "I'd sit this one out, Cap."

"I don't see how I can," he replies, putting the parachute on. Kate glances at the ones left, wondering if she should. It would help things if she were down there...

"These guys come from legends, they're basically gods," Nat says.

Cap shakes his head. "There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that."

Kate gasps, giving him pause. "Oh, my stars, my dad would be so happy to hear you say that."

He gives her a sort of confused smile, then realizes something and gestures to the parachutes. "Are you coming? You know this Thor fellow, and... well, you can... make fire with your hands."

"Well, I, um..." she starts. Jumping out of a plane was never on her job description, and the thought honestly scares her. That helicopter was much closer to the ground, and she didn't have a choice, what with Fury grabbing her.

Cap raises a brow at her, and she knows they're losing time. But it's him, and he wants her to go with him based on how he asked — and she did tell Fury she would do anything for Captain America...

She grabs a parachute, attempting to put it on how he did.

"You can't be serious, Kate," Nat says.

Cap walks over, quickly helping Kate when he sees she's struggling. "You've never jumped out of a plane before, have you?"

She shakes her head. "I'm a scientist."

He lays a hand on her shoulder, gently moving her to the edge of the door. "Just hang on tight."

Knowing they can't waste any more time, she leaps with him.