chapter thirty-five
god family quarrels

"𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍 to me why Earth has become the fighting ground to your family quarrels?" Grace asked, walking into the briefing room following Nick's interrogation of Loki.

Thor looked over at the brunette woman, mildly confused. "I'm sorry?"

"You and your brother," she replied in annoyance. "Just a few months ago, you destroyed a town in New Mexico. You sent seven of my agents to the hospital, most of whom are still recovering from the severe concussions you gave them. And not to mention, the symbol on the ground where your sparkly thing appeared, it's still there. Now your brother is here and I'm not happy about that."

"I can assure you that no harm will come to your people," Thor told her and she nodded, letting out a breath. "I can put an end to Loki's schemes."

"Well... harm has already come to my people," Grace said, shaking her head at the God. "Agent Barton has been put under his control since he arrived on Earth. He's my people."

Grace turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Yelling at him isn't going to do anyone any good," Steve told her and she sighed.

"Fine."

Grace sat down on the chair next to Steve and crossed her arms. "Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve said. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor replied. "They're 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 army?" Steve repeated. "From outer space."

"So he's building another portal," Bruce said with a nod. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?"

Bruce looked at Thor. "He's an astrophysicist."

"Oh, they have a history," Grace said, nodding.

"He's a friend," Thor added.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha informed the God. "Along with our guy."

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve said and Grace held her head in her hand. "He's not leading an army from here."

Bruce shook his head. "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," he argued. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

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

Natasha looked at him. "He killed eighty people in two days."

Thor paused. "He's adopted."

Grace slumped and leaned her head on Steve's shoulder. "I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce said. "Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony replied, walking into the room. "Nephew coming in. Don't be doing anything weird." Grace rolled her eyes but didn't make any effort to move. Tony looked at Thor. "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." He turned around and looked out at the agents working at their desks. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the topsails. That man is playing GALAGA!" Grace peered around Thor at the agent before shrugging. "Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Tony covered his eye and looked around. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Maria said, deadpanned.

"Well, that sounds exhausting."

Grace fluttered her lips and stood up. "Tony, get to the point." She walked over to the agent who was playing GALAGA. "So long as nobody finds out, I won't tell anyone," she whispered to him with a smile.

"Fine. I'll get to the point," Tony said with a sigh. "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."

Maria furrowed her brows. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" she asked.

"Last night," Tony replied. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

Grace looked around the room and nodded. "I'm gonna go with yes."

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

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

Tony nodded. "Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

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

Tony smiled. "Finally, someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Grace and Steve asked at the same time.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said, shaking the scientist's hand. "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."

Grace shook her head. "Nope. Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube, Tony."

"I was hoping you might join him," Nick added, walking into the room with Adelaide behind him.

"I really don't like your brother," Adelaide told Thor before sitting next to Steve and Thor raised his eyebrows at the blonde agent.

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve said while Grace stood behind Adelaide's chair. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

Nick shook his head. "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."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked in confusion. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve exclaimed, feeling proud of himself. "I understood that reference."

Tony rolled his eyes and Grace flicked him. "Be nice," she hissed at him and he let out a breath.

"Shall we play, doctor?"

"Let's play some."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 pen in her hand, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. She heard a knock on her office door and she sighed. "If it's the council criticizing everything we do again, just... tell them I'm not here. Or better yet, tell them to talk to Fury."

Adelaide poked her head inside the door. "Um... there's a bit of an issue... in Dr. Banner's lab," she said and Grace raised her eyebrows. "With Fury."

"Please say the Hulk hasn't been unleashed."

She shook her head. "No. No, nothing of that sort... but, um..."

"Spit it out, Addy."

"Captain Rogers found the plans," Adelaide said.

Grace furrowed her brows. "What plans?" she asked.

"What do you mean 'what plans'?" Grace shrugged and Adelaide let out a breath. "Phase two of Nick's plans involves weapons. And... Captain Rogers found HYDRA weapons in a locked crate."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Grace said, shaking her head. She stood and started for Bruce's lab. "And Nick didn't tell me about these plans... why?"

"I don't know."

Grace scoffed and the two arrived at the lab, finding everyone arguing. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," Bruce said.

"I would love to know the same." Nick turned when he heard Grace's voice and she smiled sarcastically. "This organization was founded to help people, Fury. Not... be HYDRA."

"Because of him," Nick said, pointing at Thor.

"Me?"

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor replied.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Nick asked him. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve asked while Grace crossed her arms.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Nick replied. "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war?"

"Higher form?"

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something."

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony said with a nod. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep..."

"Wait! Wait!" Tony interrupted Steve while Grace let out a breath and held her head in her hands. "How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve replied.

Thor chuckled at the arguing between the two. "I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Excuse me," Nick said, turning to the God in annoyance. "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor retorted.

Adelaide leaned over toward Grace. "You know, for being Earth's mightiest heroes, they're all acting like children."

"They don't know each other," Grace replied with a sigh, watching the arguing. It was now revealed that Steve was on the threat potential watch list. "Nick put them together to be this great team when the only people who have sort of worked together are Tony and Romanoff. Not the most genius move on his part."

"Well, what do we do?" Adelaide asked.

"You mean what do we do against a super soldier, a trained assassin, a literal God, a man with a metal suit, and someone who turns into a rage monster when provoked?" Grace replied with a shrug. "Nothing. We let them bicker."

"But them arguing won't get Barton back."

Grace nodded. "I know."

Adelaide huffed and stood on the table. "Hey!" she shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Shut up! You're giving me a headache!"

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor said and Adelaide rolled her eyes at the resumed bickering.

"That's not shutting up!"

Grace wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Worth a shot," she said, letting out an annoyed breath.

"It's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce asked while Grace and Adelaide sat down. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Nick told him.

Tony put his arm around Steve's shoulder. "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" he asked.

"You know damn well why!" Steve snapped, pushing Tony's arm off. "Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Big man in a suit of armor," Steve said while Grace shook her head in annoyance. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Grace shrugged. "Eh. Not wrong."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve said and Grace silently banged her head on the table. "Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other crawl over you."

Tony shrugged. "I think I would just cut the wire."

Steve nodded with an annoyed smile. "Always a way out..." he said. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony repeated. "Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Grace clapped with a sarcastic smile. "Well, this has been an absolute pleasure," she said, moving to stand between Steve and Tony. "If you all could please focus on the actual issue at hand, that would be amazing. You know, the Tesseract? The whole goddamn reason you people are bickering in the first place? You guys can fight all you like. After you find me the Tesseract."

Suddenly, there was an explosion and everyone went in different directions. "Well..." Grace sighed, hearing ringing in her ears. "Nothing like an explosion to get people moving."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐑𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐎 the Helicarrier bridge and looked around at the chaos unfolding around her. "Bring the carrier to the water!" she said to the agent directing the ship.

"Why the water?" he asked and she rolled her eyes. "Navigations recalibrated after the engine failure."

"And I don't care!" she replied with a huff. "Get the damn ship over the water. If one more turbine goes down, we drop. I'd prefer we do that over water than on a city."

"We got perimeter breach!" Agent Sitwell shouted. "Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Hold on to every junction. We have the Hulk and Thor on research level four. Levels two and three are dark."

Grace let out a breath. "We just had to found an organization," she muttered, walking over to the pilot. "We couldn't have done something normal. Like a restaurant or not going into business with your brother."

"Agent Coulson is down," Nick's voice said through the earpiece and Grace paused.

"Paramedics are on their way."

"They're here," Nick confirmed. "They called it."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

an: I honestly kinda
hate this chapter but
it's not gonna get any
better... so here it is

I love this movie, I do,
but... why is it so hard
to write for?!

oh, and thank you all
so much for 100K
reads on this book. It
means so much <3