Chapter 154

Natasha was flying towards the Asian continent.

Her mission was quite simple yet complicated.

She needed to bring Bruce Banner to SHIELD to help them find the Tesseract and, consequently, Loki.

She had discussed it with Damian, and he had told her to bring Bruce anyway since he had no intention of intervening directly.

Damian said it would be good for everyone to know what the universe is really like and what the dangers are.

The ship gave a gentle alert indicating that they had arrived.

Natasha simply opened the door before throwing herself onto the ground.

As she fell, a black suit began to form all over her body until it completely covered her.

Natasha landed silently on the roof of Bruce's house.

Quickly, she ran towards the wall before leaping and driving her claws, causing her body to rotate cleanly through the window.

Bruce, who was having breakfast, was left stunned with the spoon in his mouth upon seeing a black-clad female figure suddenly enter.

He quickly reacted and positioned himself defensively behind the table as his eyes began to turn green.

"Hello, Bruce," Natasha said, raising her hand in greeting while the helmet of her suit retracted, revealing her face.

"Who are you?" Bruce asked, still on guard. He was only conversing with the woman before him because his usual danger sense hadn't alerted him; otherwise, he would have already turned green and leaped through the roof.

"I'm an agent of SHIELD, a global security organization. We've been monitoring and looking after you for several years."

"In fact, I've been following you the whole time since you arrived in the United States a couple of years ago, so I know you," Natasha said, smiling at him.

"And then why didn't you prevent what happened with Blonsky?" Bruce asked, furrowing his brow.

"Well, my mission was to track you and protect you from any lethal harm. When you were captured by Ross, my mission ended, and I left," Natasha explained, smiling somewhat shyly.

"Anyway, that's not important right now. Someone stole a very important object, and if we don't locate it quickly, many people will die."

"How can I be of help?" Bruce asked, frowning.

"The stolen object emits gamma radiation, and you are the foremost expert in that field. That's why I'm asking you to come with me to help us."

"As soon as we find the object, I promise to escort you out of the location," Natasha assured Bruce, looking at him seriously.

"Can you guarantee that? You're just an agent," Bruce said, clearly not believing her.

"I'm a rather special agent," Natasha replied, smiling slightly.

"Alright, fine. I'll go with you. Anyway, I can escape whenever I want," Bruce said, heading to his room and grabbing the suitcase that was always ready. It was a bit dusty since it had been a while since anyone had chased him.

"Good, let's go," Natasha said, nodding as she walked to the window and signaled for her ship.

Natasha put her feet on the window before taking a leap towards her ship. She looked back to see Bruce looking at the advanced ship with doubt.

Even when he worked in the army, he had never seen anything so advanced.

Natasha quickly adjusted the ship closer for Bruce to board.

Once they were both ready, Natasha quickly accelerated towards the Helicarrier.

...

"Don't joke, why are you asking me this?" Tony said on the phone with Damian as he flew towards New York. The Helicarrier was parked several kilometers away, so it only took him a moment to arrive.

"Come on, there was no one else I could ask," Damian replied, laughing while sending Jane a location.

Tony landed on the top of a building, opened his helmet, and sat on the edge.

"How are things at SHIELD? Haven't you been able to trace the Tesseract?" Damian teased.

"It's not an area I specialize in," Tony complained.

"Well, from what I know, Bruce Banner will arrive soon to help, or rather, to do what you couldn't," Damian said, laughing heartily.

"You're annoying," Tony said, cutting the call straight away.

After waiting a few minutes, his systems detected an approaching ship. Looking in the direction, he saw a small black ship.

He quickly scanned it, trying to figure out how it worked.

Some things were impossible to see or understand, but something caught his attention—the energy source was very familiar to him.

The energy from his own reactor was a cheap copy of the Tesseract's energy. Although he had never seen the Tesseract or its energy, the energy from that ship was definitely very close to, or even directly derived from the Tesseract.

Tony stared thoughtfully at the ship until two people descended from it.

You didn't need to be a genius to know that Thor was the guy in scale armor with a hammer in hand.

As for the lady, of course, he knew her.

"Hello, Jane, how are you? How's your research going? I read a little about it, and although it sounds crazy, maybe you can prove it," Tony said, smiling at her.

"My research is going quite well. I hope to have results soon," Jane replied, smiling satisfied.

"I suppose you're Thor. Hello," Tony said, extending his hand for a handshake.

"Hello," Thor nodded, shaking Tony's hand while eyeing his armor.

"Well, I'm sure you're both busy, so I'll leave you to it."

"Take this," Jane said, pulling out a rectangular box containing a phone and handing it to Thor. It was a spare she had, and maybe it would work even if Thor was in Asgard.

"What's this?" Thor asked, confused by the box.

"It's a communication device. Inside are the instructions. Maybe with this, we can communicate even if you're in Asgard," Jane explained with a smile.

"Hm, I appreciate it," Thor said, also smiling happily.

"Do you want a moment alone?" Tony asked, at a loss for words.

Jane just looked at Tony with disdain before getting on her ship and leaving.

"Can you fly, right?" Tony asked Thor.

"Of course," Thor said with an arrogant smile.

"Why didn't you have that smile when Jane was here?" Tony teased before taking off and flying a few meters away from Thor.

''Follow me if you can,'' Tony said with a chuckle before quickly flying off.

Thor chuckled to himself before twirling his hammer and flying after the man in the metal suit.

....

Steve was in a Quinjet with Coulson, who was excited to be sitting next to his idol.

"So, this all happened from trying to replicate the serum that was used on me," Steve said, looking at a tablet handed to him by Coulson.

Even though he had already seen the giant green creature, he wasn't informed about why he transformed into that.

"That's right, and you weren't the only one who tried. Banner thought that Gamma rays were the key to unlocking Erskine's formula," Coulson said.

"I guess it wasn't what he was looking for," Steve said, watching the videos.

"No, it ruined his life," Coulson said, shaking his head with pity.

Coulson saw Steve nod without saying anything more. He cleared his throat and continued speaking as he looked around.

"I mean, it's an honor to meet you. We officially met when you were frozen, but you didn't know it," Coulson said nervously.

"I mean, I was there when you were unconscious on the ice," Coulson started to stumble over his words.

Steve just smiled, amused but also uncomfortable with Coulson's enthusiasm towards him.

"I just hope I'm the right person for the job," Steve said, aware that he was in the presence of beings far superior to himself.

"Oh, you definitely are," Coulson said, nodding without a doubt.

The Quinjet soon began to slow down before landing gently on an aircraft carrier.

"Take Captain's luggage," Coulson ordered as he got off, followed by Steve.

Steve looked around, and the military environment felt very familiar to him. He could even see several soldiers running, which brought back many memories.

As he looked around, he suddenly saw Natasha descending from a ship, followed by Bruce Banner.

He immediately recognized him from the photos and videos he had seen of the man.

Natasha also saw Steve and waved to him before speaking to Bruce and introducing him.

"Hello, Steve," Natasha greeted.

"Hello," Steve said, smiling slightly.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said, extending his hand.

"Hello, I heard you were coming too," Bruce said, shaking Steve's hand.

"They say you can locate the cube," Steve said, looking at Bruce.

"I hope that's not all they expect from me," Bruce said, looking around.

"That's all I care about," Steve said, understanding the complexities the man had, although his personality seemed a bit different from the report.

"We should go inside. It's going to get very windy out here soon," Natasha said, hearing the alarms.

"Wind?" Steve said, confused, approaching the edge with Bruce just in time to see the propellers start to spin.

"This thing flies," Steve said in astonishment.

"Well, they really have no fear," Bruce commented, curving his lips a bit. If he transformed while flying and couldn't control himself, it would be a disaster.

Natasha quickly led them inside, and the three of them sat at a table in SHIELD's control center.

Fury, who was already there, greeted them all.

"Dr. Banner, thank you for coming and helping us," Fury said, shaking Bruce's hand, and noticing that Bruce had changed.

"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce said, nodding.

"Captain," Fury said, nodding.

"Director," Steve said, nodding back.

"Sir, Iron Man is approaching with Thor," Maria Hill said from the side.

"Then let's wait for them before we start talking," Fury said, nodding.

Natasha brought Steve and Bruce to sit at the table while they had an informal conversation.

A while later, Tony entered without his armor, accompanied by Thor, who received many looks along the way.

"So, we've finally all gathered," Fury murmured. His Avengers initiative seems to be complete.

Although he included Thor, he didn't count on him much. Probably if Loki weren't involved, he wouldn't have come.

"Well, gentlemen, now that we're all here, we should get to work," Fury said, seeing that everyone was present.

"Hm, yes, if Loki wants to bring an army, he must be planning to build another portal," Bruce said.

"Yes, but it definitely won't be easy for them. Loki needs a stable portal and much wider for his troops to pass through," Tony said, looking at Bruce.

"That's if we're talking from a scientific point of view, but considering that he touched the Tesseract and disappeared, there may be other ways," Bruce said, shaking his head.

"True, after all, magic is something ridiculous," Tony said, laughing as he walked toward Bruce.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said, shaking his hand.

"Your research is unparalleled, and I admire the way you turn into a giant green man," Tony said, looking at Bruce.

"Thank you, your suits are pretty impressive too," Bruce said, nodding a bit uncomfortable, but he was no longer as affected by his transformation.

"Dr. Banner is only here to help us track the cube," Fury lied.

"Agent Romanoff, please take Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark to the lab," Fury said, looking at Natasha.

"Of course," Natasha said, nodding as she guided them.

...

Loki was using an illusion around him to walk through the streets of New York. He was excited, thinking that all of this would soon be his.

After a long walk, he quickly returned to his secret base, although it wasn't really that secret. There was nothing more satisfying than hiding something in plain sight.

The feeling of being on the edge of being discovered thrilled him.

Loki arrived at a building near Stark Tower, where Erik was working on creating a device.

"How's the plan going? Do you still need me to steal some things?" Loki asked, looking at him.

"It's going great. I discovered something really interesting while studying the energy networks. Stark Tower runs on a reactor, and this reactor uses energy quite similar to that of the cube."

"If we use all the energy from the tower, we can start the cube, and gradually it will become self-sustaining. That will prevent us from having to get other slightly complicated things," Erik said, his eyes shining.

"Good," Loki said, giving a big smile.

"So let's prepare everything and start the conquest as soon as possible," Loki said, laughing to himself.

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