On the Helicarrier, Loki was escorted under the watch of two teams of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into a specially constructed circular prison cell...
The automatic airlock sealed shut behind him as Nick Fury stood outside, his single eye gleaming sharply.
"If you try to escape, or hatch any other schemes, even if you just lightly scratch the glass," the one-eyed director tapped a few times on the control panel's touchscreen, "you'll be taking this iron cage on a freefall from nine thousand meters up. Do you understand your situation now?"
One side of the circular cell opened into a massive void, allowing the roaring wind to howl through with an ear-piercing screech. As a seasoned agent, Nick Fury knew exactly how to employ psychological tactics.
For him, the two most pressing matters were recovering the Tesseract and unraveling Loki's plans. If not for the Asgardian prince's status, the bald director might have resorted to more aggressive methods... torture and interrogation were standard procedures for any agent.
Unfortunately, the hot-tempered Thor would never stand idly by while his brother was subjected to such treatment, no matter that Loki had killed eighty-eight people in two days and was plotting to destroy the world.
So, for now, Fury could only resort to verbal threats.
He had a mountain of headaches to deal with. The so-called "Avengers" were far from united... Tony Stark, the irreverent Iron Man, remained wary of S.H.I.E.L.D; Bruce Banner was an uncontrollable danger, a ticking time bomb; and Thor, the Asgardian, was still an untrustworthy alien, at least for now.
That left Fury with only two reliable assets; Natasha, who had rejoined the team, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own forces.
What was particularly noteworthy, however, was Sean Cyphers' Umbrella Corporation.
The rapid rise of this research institution and its formidable defensive capabilities had taken the bald director by surprise.
He had reviewed the surveillance footage from the incident. The mutant squad's coordinated capabilities displayed extraordinary combat prowess, leaving the HYDRA operatives utterly defenseless.
And then there was Emil Blonsky, the former soldier enhanced with the super-soldier serum, who possessed Hulk-like strength and ferocity. No wonder the Department of Defense had signed long-term contracts with Umbrella... this was the super-soldier the military brass had been dreaming of.
"Perhaps I need to adjust my thinking," Fury mused.
Sean Cyphers wasn't like most scientists. He was closer to the businessman archetype embodied by Tony Stark, only more direct. Though S.H.I.E.L.D. had clashed with him before, the world had no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests.
The one-eyed director was deep in thought. The Avengers weren't proving as effective as he had hoped.
They operated independently. They were distrustful of one another, making teamwork impossible...
...
In the Helicarrier's command center, the Avengers gathered in the conference room behind the bridge, the gleaming eagle insignia shining brightly as they discussed Loki's scheme...
"I think his plan involves machinery. Iridium can be used as a stabilizer. Loki took Dr. Selvig, so he must be building some kind of device," Banner, ever the scientist, speculated.
"A new portal."
Now out of his Iron Man armor and dressed in a suit, Tony strode in with his usual casual confidence.
He clapped Thor's muscular arm familiarly, fiddled with the commander's operating system, and discreetly planted a miniature surveillance device in an unnoticed corner...
"He needs a portal that lasts longer and covers a wider area. The other materials and equipment are easy to obtain. The only thing missing is a high-density energy source to activate the Tesseract."
Tony's confident explanation immediately drew everyone's attention, which, of course, had been his intention.
The world's greatest team of superheroes needed a wise and rational leader, and Stark had no doubt he was the perfect candidate.
"Since when did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Commander Hill asked skeptically.
"Last night," Tony shrugged, "Coulson's reports, Dr. Selvig's notes, documents on extraction theory... Don't tell me I'm the only one who did my homework?"
"We should start with Loki's scepter. That thing reminds me of HYDRA's weapons... it might have some kind of extraordinary power," Steve interjected.
As a man from the last century, he couldn't follow Tony's scientific jargon, but that didn't mean he was clueless. Loki's scepter gave Captain America a sense of déjà vu. It felt eerily similar to the Tesseract.
Thor stood silently to the side. He knew his brother had caused plenty of trouble, and after his earlier brawl with Iron Man, there was still some lingering tension.
The Asgardian prince just wanted to retrieve the Tesseract and drag Loki back to their realm. As for the rest of the conspiracy, he had no time for it. With the Bifrost destroyed and the Nine Realms in chaos, he had territories to reclaim and order to restore.
Tony nodded, "I'll scan the scepter's gamma readings. Its radiation signature closely matches the Tesseract's... Dr. Selvig mentioned that in his report."
Ever since boarding the Helicarrier, he had JARVIS hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s core systems, bypassing the mainframe to infiltrate the subsystems. With the AI's computing power performing six hundred trillion floating-point operations per second, it would only take a few hours to crack everything open.
Nick Fury was hiding something from everyone. His claim about using the Tesseract to develop infinite energy for the greater good was just empty rhetoric. It was the kind of nonsense that might fool Bruce Banner, but Tony wasn't buying a word of it.
Was S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to compete with Stark Industries? Or was the bald director some kind of environmentalist, dedicated to creating infinite energy and ushering in a new era for the world?
As a former arms dealer, Tony knew the Tesseract's greatest use lay in weaponry. An infinite energy source could power reactors, providing limitless fuel for advanced arms.
Tony didn't dislike pragmatists. Self-interest was human nature. But hiding behind lofty ideals, pretending everything was for humanity and the world... that was was downright hypocritical.
Someone like Sean though... he never hid his true nature. Like Tony himself, he was no hero, nor did he pretend to be.
Tony wanted to be Iron Man, to be a superhero who saved the world, because he believed he could be better than just following in his father's footsteps as a successful weapons manufacturer.
He wasn't Steve Rogers, the war hero, the symbol of freedom and virtue. Men like Captain America were rare in this world.
"Maybe Sean was right. People never hesitate to assume the worst of others." Tony smirked self-deprecatingly as he slung an arm around Banner's shoulders, leading him to the lab to examine Loki's scepter.
As for the secrets Nick Fury was hiding, the truth would soon come to light...
....
Meanwhile, inside the circular prison cell, Loki wore a smug self-satisfied grin...
He had successfully diverted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention while Dr. Selvig used the Tesseract to open a portal, ushering in the Chitauri army.
The script had already been written. All that remained was to wait. The god of mischief, ever fond of his own cunning, couldn't help but feel a thrill at having outmaneuvered Earth's mightiest heroes.
Short-sighted and foolish Midgardians could never guess his plans. Not even Thor who had grown up with him could ever truly understand his mind.
Once the army flooded Earth, the planet would be his.
And when he presented the Tesseract to that Titan, Loki would gain even greater support, bringing him one step closer to the throne of the Nine Realms.
The thought made him chuckle aloud...