The Breeze before The Storm

Romanoff and Banner crashed down onto the lower equipment room after the sequence of explosions. The Doctor twisted and turned in desperation to hold the beast back in its cage. As Natasha struggled to break free of the debris on her feet, she shuddered, "Doctor….Bruce, you gotta fight it." Her tone and words shifted to better calm the changing Banner, "This is just what Loki wants. We're going to be okay. Listen to me."

Regardless, before she could continue with her persuasion, she felt the weight on her ankles disappear. Looking in the direction of the source, Romanoff saw the Viltrumite hovering over the ground, observing Bruce.

"Leave," Felix warned Romanoff, his furious tone carried over from the earlier conversation. He was going to help SHIELD with this Hulk problem, and then Fury would feel the ire he earned.

Natasha rose from the ground and spoke, "You have to get him out of the helicarrier." She took a concerned look towards Banner and then fled from the area, not wanting to add fuel to the fire.

Banner finished his transformation now as he angrily roared. With Felix being the only one in his sight, the Hulk rushed towards the man. Felix swiftly dodged to the side as the monster ran past him. Hulk stopped himself from the momentum caused by his enlarged body then turned back to the Viltrumite, but Felix was upon him now. His fist collapsed onto the Hulk's chest, sinking deeply but did not break through the green skin. The impact threw Hulk backward almost lifted him off the air.

Felix continued to flood the other in a fury of fists. They both traveled through pipes and metals then onto walls and equipment. Destruction ensued as the two passed through varied rooms in the one-sided onslaught. The pair crashed onto the aircraft port, startling groups of SHIELD personnel.

Hulk fell to the ground with his body slightly submerged in the concrete. The beast dazedly propped himself up and swapped at the Viltrumite. He hovered a touch off the ground as he swerved to avoid the untrained and predictable attacks. As Felix went in for another punch, the Hulk grabbed onto one of his arms, struggling to hold it in place as the alien increased the strength in his limb. With the other, the green entity took hold of the man's head, attempting to crush it. Yet, Felix brought his free hand to assault the beast's wrist. In a painful motion, Hulk's joint bent and snapped. He screamed in excruciation while letting go of the other's head.

A quinjet from outside the hangar shot its machine gun at the two in pure fright, to which the bullets bounced off both entities. With Felix's attention turning away from the green beast, Hulk used the opportunity to swing a hit at the Viltrumite's head. The fist collided and shifted Felix's position by a foot or two despite not drawing blood.

Felix thought the Hulk was just a mindless living symbol of anger, he did not know the creature could make use of the open distraction. "It was a good hit," he mumbled. In response, Felix kicked Hulk with enough force to send him off onto the jet. Unfortunately, the cockpit collapsed from the inhuman weight and instantly killed the pilot as both the vehicle and the beast plummeted towards the ground. With the opportunity to let off some steam finished, he landed on the ground and thought of his next course of action.

Felix had finished his end of the bargain and beyond. Despite his constant graciousness, Fury spat on his face. Enough was enough. The Viltrumite then made his way to the bridge, where he expected Fury would be.

….

Nick Fury was instructing his agents after Rogers and Stark had restored the engine that went offline during the attack. Despite their various containment plans for Loki, he had escaped their grasp and murdered many of SHIELD's agents, including one Phil Coulson. Fury was grieving for his personnel, but he knew there was no time. The Chitauri were coming and they still had no idea where the portal would be open. The one good news he had was that Hulk had been sent off the helicarrier without too much damage for SHIELD, however, the Viltrumite's apathy for his people's lives was concerning.

Fury saw Felix entering the bridge in a dominating manner. The danger was coming his way. "Mr. Wright, I understand your…." Fury attempted to calm the alien, but Felix rapidly sped towards the director and grabbed hold of his neck.

Felix lifted the one-eyed man from the ground as he struggled to hold onto the Viltrumite's arms so the force did not solely lie on his neck. Everyone in the room drew their weapons towards the foreigner now, but Fury held his hand out as an order to stand down.

The alien floated from the bridge and crashed through the reinforced glass panels at the front of the helicarrier with ease, bringing along the director. Dangling over the intense drop and with a hand on his throat, Fury whimpered, "Frei….Coulson…was killed….avenge…him."

Felix's eyes lessened in their intensity for a little bit but gained new wrath in them. Coulson was the closest thing he had on Earth to a friend, but people die. In his own long life, he had seen death at its best and at its worst. The Viltrumite spoke, "Are you trying to manipulate me with his death? Even now, you are a slimy venomous snake."

"No…Earth is in…danger…new…deal…" Fury's tone more desperate now, the feeling of wind rushing at thirty-thousand feet in the air made for a good motivator.

"No more deals. No more bargains. I have no more tolerance for you. Now, you listen to me," Felix warned as his grip tightened, "I have seen the best you could mutter up. It is laughable." His words filled with superiority.

"You will erase your research. I do not care how. If I ever get a whiff of anything that's even close to Viltrumite blood, there is nowhere in this world or any others, you and your appalling organization can hide from me." Felix gave his threat and threw Fury back into helicarrier.

"I'll be watching you, Nick Fury." He ended and flew off back to his apartment in New York City.

Fury landed on the ground as his agents helped him back up to his feet. The director caressed his now bruised neck and stared at the direction the Viltrumite just left in with worrying thoughts.

….

In the detention center where Loki was held and the place where Phil Coulson was killed, both Stark and Rogers stood. Like what Coulson was to Felix, Stark felt the same to the agent. He considered him a close friend, and he did not have many of those left. Rogers broke the silence between the two, "I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot." Tony looked at Rogers.

"Why?" Rogers had a confused look, "For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." Stark walked towards Rogers now.

"He was doing his job." Rogers refuted. His eyes intended to match that of Tony Stark.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…." Tony stuttered, still recounting the situation to see if there was anything he could have done differently.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Rogers knew that sometimes, we have to make sacrifices so that others can be safe. He made his choice by crashing the Valkarie into the ocean, and Phil Coulson made his choice by confronting Loki.

"Right. How did that work for him?" Tony replied with anger rising up in him once again.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve tried to comfort Tony in the only way he knew how.

"WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS! I am not marching to Fury's fife!" Stark turned towards the captain, frowning into his deep blue eyes.

"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list…." There was nothing Steve could do but move on. There was a threat out there, and they needed to stop it.

Stark stared at the dried blood on the walls. This must have been where his friend died. He gathered what the man would have felt, alone in this massive room while he was bleeding out. Did Coulson believe in them, as Steve said, or was he regretting his decision? Stark cut in before Steve could finish, "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve moved on, but Tony maintained his argument, "That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all, right where we live. Why?"

Rogers thought over the questions for a second and added, "To tear us apart."

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it." Stark mulled over the thoughts of Loki. They were so similar and yet contrasted each other in so many ways. "He wants an audience." He continued.

"Right, I wasn't able to see it but Felix saw his act at Stuttgart," Rogers replied.

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered…." Stark made a breakthrough. He realized now where Loki would want the portal to open. "Son of a bitch!" He yelled and left to inform the others.

….

Felix slumped down on his couch with his helmet off, recounting the events that just happened. He had only wanted to finish his debt for SHIELD, and yet he learned that the organization was working on decoding his DNA and possibly creating Viltrumite clones to match their needs. It was incredibly stupid of them. The Earthlings surprised him against his initial assessment of the planet's technological growth. It seemed that advancements were only kept secret by those in power from the general public. In their current path, they might destroy themselves before anyone else had the chance to do so.

Furthermore, according to the Ancient one, he was the only Viltrumite in this universe. Was it now his responsibility to recreate Viltrumite Empire that he had fought so hard against? Viltrumite and humans' genetics were so closely similar that his offspring would be almost a hundred percent his race. His stature sunk further into the comforting chair.

"It was so much easier in the past," Felix mumbled. He had a purpose, had a mission during his time on Viltrum. Everything was so simple back then, and he just needed to do what was required of him. Now, everything was muddled. Felix had to face the consequences of his actions without any guidelines from others like him. He had not felt this lost since he defected from the Imperial army. The death of Phil Coulson added a more somber mood to his mind. The agent was a good friend despite his task to monitor Felix. Coulson was an honest man, unlike Nick Fury. Felix took a deep breath. All he wanted now was to go have that dinner he missed with May Parker.

A ring from his phone brought him out of his thoughts. The caller was unknown, which made Felix reluctant to answer the call. However, before long, he picked up the phone.

"What took you so long, Hercules? Tried calling you through the comms but you weren't there," Stark's voice could be heard from the other side.

"What do you want?" Felix replied.

"We found out the location for Loki's invasion. We're on our way." Stark urged.

"I have no part to take in your crusade, Stark," Felix replied with total annoyance in his tone.

"Lots of people's lives are at stake here. So even if you don't care about humanity, then you will at least care about the locations on those SHIELD labs that studied your blood?"

"Did Fury set you up for this?" Felix's voice is filled with wrath now.

"What? No. We all hate that guy." Tony groaned in response.

The Viltrumite continued, "Where?"

"The SHIELD facilities? This is hardly the ti...." Tony replied, which was swiftly interjected by the other, "Where is the portal?"

"Ah right. It will be at my tower in New York City." Stark answered.

Felix widened his eyes in surprise and darted out of the building, grabbing onto his helmet. There was only one thing in his mind now, the safety of May and Peter.

"Hey? Are you there? Hey! At least confirm if you're coming!" The Ironman chimed in confusion from the phone left behind in the apartment.