CHAPTER FIVE:

ATTACKED AND INJURED

THE SOUND OF footsteps all around could be heard in the hallways and the many rooms of the flying S.H.I.E.L.D. facility that was full of agents and many other adults, only a little girl being seen inside. The sun was shining through the many windows of the facility, the bright blue sky replacing the usual night sky as the white, fluffy-looking clouds moved in one direction while the time continued going by each day.

Inside the only lab of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, Y/n had found herself walking inside where Bruce and Tony had been working on figuring out more about Loki's staff that he used to control the Tesseract with. Now, time had passed and Y/n had found herself sitting on a counter in the lab as she had picked up a conversation with Tony, who was learning more about the adopted daughter of Nick Fury.

The occasional beeps and typing could be heard from the many screens all around as Bruce fixed his glasses on his nose, the object occasionally falling down and lower onto his nose before he'd use his index finger to push it up, sometimes even taking it off to clean the glass of his glasses.

Tony found himself walking around, looking at the computers with a bag of blueberries in his hand, offering the eleven year old some every few minutes. It wasn't often she went into the lab since the doctors didn't work in there much.

"So..." Tony begins, facing the two. "...how come you are still here? I mean, other than you being Nick's daughter, but there's gotta be something special about you."

"I don't know my real family." Y/n tells him with a shrug. "For all I know, I've never met them."

"You've never met your real family?" Bruce asks as he takes off his glasses, suddenly interested as the girl nods. "Where were you before S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"HYDRA." Y/n reveals, causing the men to look at her in surprise. "I was experimented on. A lot. They found me when I was six, I'm eleven now."

"Were you taken care of at all?" Bruce questions in concern.

Y/n nods. "There was this soldier. He had a metal arm. He took care of me most of the time, unless he was on a mission. There was also someone else. I think he was around my age, but I don't remember him much."

"That pen that hit me earlier... that was you, wasn't it? It came out of nowhere." Tony realizes, receiving a slow nod from her. "You weren't even holding it. That plant was. You... were controlling it. Those experiments... is that what gave you those... abilities of yours?"

Only nodding in response, Y/n catches sight of a dead plant in the corner of the room and points at it. The men follow her gaze before she waves her hand and the plant was suddenly alive like it had been a long time ago, standing up right instead of just slumping over, the colour coming back to it.

Bruce raises a brow. "HYDRA gave you those abilities?"

"Yeah, they did. From what I know, I can create and manipulate plants." Y/n states, shrugging.

An impressed smile etches on Tony's face as he looks at the eleven year old before holding the bag towards her, the girl letting her hand grab some blueberries to eat. Some time passed and they were talking with Tony when Fury walked into the room, making them quiet down as the man stopped beside his daughter.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury questions.

Tony furrows his brows. "Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury reminds, placing a hand on his daughter's back to keep her close.

"We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit..." Bruce informs, pointing at a screen. "...we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss." Tony adds, looking at a screen when it beeped. "What is 'Phase two'?"

Steve walks in, slamming a weapon on a table. "Phase two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making--" Fury replies.

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupts, turning the computer screen in his direction. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve comments just when Thor and Natasha walked in.

Bruce looks to the redhead. "Did you know about this?"

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha suggests instead of replying, taking a glance at the kids in the room.

Bruce chuckles, something that also sounded like a scoff. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you." Natasha tells him, stepping forward.

Bruce steps back, raising a brow. "And you've been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha states.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce fires back, grabbing the computer screen and pointing at what was shown. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury points at the only Asgardian in the room. "Because of him."

"Me?" Thor mumbles in confusion.

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

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

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

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asks.

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

Steve furrows his brow. "A higher form?"

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

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony intervenes, speaking over him. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury comments.

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

"Wait. Hold on." Tony interrupts with furrowed brows. "How is this now about me?"

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

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor states.

Fury raises a brow in annoyance and anger. "Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"You treat your champions with such mistrust." Thor points out.

"Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha speaks up. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce questions in disbelief.

Natasha sighs. "We all are."

The adults in the lab continued finding themselves arguing with one another, their voices being the only thing that could be heard if many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were to walk by and hear all their voices speaking over one another. Meanwhile, Y/n had now been standing on the floor, having hopped off the table she was sitting on and were now looking around at the tall adults. It was then that she noticed Loki's scepter glowing behind the adults. That's how she found herself trying to get the adults attention, but they weren't listening to her.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor continues, having been arguing with Bruce.

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce replies, causing everyone to look at him. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away." Fury demands.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asks, placing his hand on Steve's shoulder.

"Guys, the scept--" Y/n tries, only to get interrupted.

Steve pushes Tony's hand off his shoulder. "You know damn well why. Back off!"

"I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony admits.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor." Steve breathes out. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony lists off, receiving a shrug of agreement from Natasha.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. 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 guy crawl over you." Steve grunts out.

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

Steve smirks a bit, glancing at the others. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Tony reminds in a sneer.

Steve clenches his jaw. "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughs loudly, catching everyone's attention. "You people are so petty and tiny."

Bruce scoffs. "Yeah, this is a team."

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his--" Fury begins, pushing the eleven year olds behind him protectively.

"Where? You rented my room." Bruce points out in a reminder.

"The cell was just in case--" Fury tries.

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried." Bruce reveals, making everyone stare at him. "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk, including a little girl who has been through enough. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Everyone in the room had tensed up when they realized the doctor's hand had grabbed ahold of the object behind him, both Fury and Natasha opening up the holsters on their sides as they kept their hands on their guns in case if the other guy were to come out and rage on. The redhead stepped close to where Y/n was, standing behind Fury when he had pushed her behind him protectively.

"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter." Steve instructs.

Looking down, it was then that Bruce realized he had been holding the God of Mischief's scepter tight in his grip. There was an uncomfortable silence between the many people in the lab as they all stared at Bruce, who glanced between them before his dark gaze looked down towards Fury's legs. Y/n had peaked out from behind the director to stare at the man, no fear being seen on her face that Bruce took notice of. Guilt coursed through him as he placed the scepter down with a shaky hand just when a loud beeping caught everyone's attention, breaking the silence.

Bruce walks by them. "Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor questions.

"I could get there fastest." Tony informs.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it." Thor argues with a booming voice.

Steve grabs the billionaire's arm when he went to leave. "You're not going alone."

Tony slaps his hand away. "You're gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out." Steve challenges.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony snarls.

"Put on the suit." Steve repeats in a grunt.

Meanwhile, as the two men had stood close, their eyes glaring at one another, Bruce had slowly taken off his glasses while his eyes stared intensely at the computer screen in front of him. His eyes widen as he looks up at the others, but before he could say anything to them, a loud explosion could be heard as the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. facility rumbled. The middle of the room exploded, sending everyone back as Natasha and Bruce had been thrown back against a window, the glass breaking while they fell floors below.

While the heroes had ran out of the room, knowing they were being attacked, Y/n got up to her knees when she heard a grunt escape past her lips at the pain that she felt in her head at the moment. The girl sat up, clutching her head that was now bleeding just as Fury rushed over towards her.

The man's eye widened at the sight of his daughter's forehead bleeding. Helping her out, Fury was ushering her out of the lab, following behind her while speaking to people on the coms until they were in the main room, calling out orders to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that had been rushing around after the explosion.

Time passed and Maria had found herself going to exit the room when she was given instructions, hand close to her gun in case of anything when she her feet were slowing down at the sight of a grenade being thrown into the room. Her voice of warning drowned out when the grenade went off, the woman having grabbed another agent, only to be thrown over the rails and onto the floor just a few feet away.

Y/n quickly ducked down behind a desk as she hid behind it when Fury demanded her to, the director venturing forward with his gun aimed in the direction of the smoke. Men in suits, larger guns in their hands, walked inside the room just as Fury came out from the wall he was hiding behind, grabbing the gun and elbowing a man in the face before shooting the other.

Many of them had been knocked out and shot at, and Maria pulled the trigger on her weapon when she noticed one going to shoot at her boss. Adding to the many sounds of gunshots in the main room, the occasional sounds of rumbles and roars could be heard all around the facility to show that the Hulk had been unleashed, especially when a voice over the P.A. had informed that Thor and the Hulk were fighting on one of the levels.

A loud explosion rumbled through the room that had S.H.I.E.L.D. agents being thrown back just when Y/n noticed a familiar face through a window. Clint had held his bow and an arrow in his hands as he used an explosive arrow before shooting near the eleven year old's and right near some computers. The mind controlled archer quickly hid when Fury shot near him, the computers turning off as it was replaced with static.

All of a sudden, a voice went on the PA echoed throughout the place as they announced engine one shut down just when the entire structure was tilting to the side a bit, causing everyone to fall over. Y/n frantically grabbed ahold of the leg of a desk so they wouldn't move all over the place, the structure ready to fall any minute. The helicarrier was continuing to collapse every second, but much to their luck, Tony in his Iron Man suit had been able to get the engines moving again with the help of Steve during the attack.

The demeanor all around was calming down as the rumbles from the Hulk had came to a stop, the creature not even in the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility at the moment after being distracted from his fight with Thor. Having checked on the kids in the facility, Fury had rushed out of the room to check where he had left Loki in his cell, having a hunch that the God of Mischief had escaped, to which he had been right but his blood ran cold when he saw a slowly dying Phil Coulson in the room.

Meanwhile, the many injured people in the helicarrier were being checked on, some being carried out from being too badly hurt to do anything. Sitting near Maria, Y/n held a scrunched up face, the occasional hiss of pain escaping her as she let the doctor in front of her check her head and clean up the blood.