Time: 2012 May. Location: SHIELD Helicarrier.

When Loki was brought back to the helicarrier, SHIELD personnel led him into a cage that would drop him thirty-thousand feet to the ground if he "misbehaved." Nick Fury, that wretched man, had dared to call him an ant. The human couldn't even recognize his betters when Loki was right in front of him. It did not matter. Loki's plans were coming to fruition; even now, Barton and his men were on their way here to unleash the Hulk on SHIELD. The scepter would be back in his hands. Soon, Earth would recognize his greatness and bow down to their king.

Loki had no doubt that his brother would have spoiled his plan to bring the invading Chitauri force to Earth by now. Thor was a constant annoyance in that regard. Natasha Romanoff came to bargain for Clint Barton's life, but she did not know that her dear friend had told Loki everything he needed to know about her.

"What will you do if I vow to spare him?" Loki sat in a chair built into the cage. His eyes was drawn to Romanoff's expressions.

Romanoff stood in front of the reinforced glass and taunted, "Not letting you out."

"Ah, no." He allowed his words to hang and continued, "but I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian…or was." She laughed a little at her joke.

"What is it you want?" Loki asked which Natasha reluctantly answered, "It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, and I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter? Sao Paulo? The Hospital fire?" Loki walked closer towards the red-haired agent, and his aura grew more and more intimidating, "Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?"

"This is the basest sentimentality." He snarled, "This is a child at prayer. Pathetic."

"I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately." Loki's mouth spewed venom with every word. He was leaning on the glass now, his face almost touching the cold surface, "In every way, he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

"You're a monster," Natasha faltered under Loki's words. She turned away from him, not dared look into his eyes.

Loki had a wide grin on his face now, admiring his work, "no, you brought the monster."

"So, Banner. That's your play," Romanoff recovered from her facade and faced Loki.

In bewilderment, he muttered, "What?"

Romanoff called into her radio and relayed, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well.

"Thank you for your cooperation." She walked quickly out of the room with her task accomplished.

Loki was stunned as agent Romanoff left the cage meant for Banner. He, the god of mischievous, was manipulated by a human, an unthinkable situation. Nonetheless, it no longer mattered. The green beast would be brought forth, and his schemes would come into fruition any time now, but he had another thought.

Banner was a mindless monster not worthy of his control. For this brother, Loki would leave Thor to helplessly watch his beloved Earth falling under his control. The Viltrumite, however, he could use him. As much as Loki hated Felix Wright, if he were to gain control of the alien, no one could stop him. There was a new chess piece to his plans.

….

Felix was standing on the bridge, watching SHIELD preparing for war. An invasion from outer space was coming, and he was curious how they would battle this unknown force. When he came to Earth, Felix did not plan to fight another war, but he gave his word, and he would see it through.

"Hey Mustache Man, we have something that you might like to see. Come to the lab." In Felix's helmet, Stark spoke.

"Tony Stark, how did you get into this channel?" Felix asked in surprise into his earpiece.

"I used my charms," Tony replied, but the Viltrumite stayed in silence, waiting for an honest answer.

"I broke into the SHIELD mainframes, and now I have all of their secure files," Stark announced.

"Very well. I'm on my way." Felix ended and walked away from the bridge.

…

Tony and Bruce had begun working on the scepter's mechanics at the SHIELD's laboratory. The technology Tony brought to find the Tesseract took time to complete, giving them a limited window to focus on other research.

Nick Fury hurriedly walked into the room and directed towards Tony, "What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

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"Kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony mused while staring the man dead in the eyes.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." There was a clear annoyance in Fury's voice. His technician had told him that they had a leak in their system. Without needing to guess, Fury immediately headed to confront the perpetrator.

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

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What is PHASE 2?

"PHASE 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Rogers answered, walking into the room. He placed a Hydra weapon he found in SHIELD's storage room when he was snooping around on the table. His head turned to Stark, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

Feeling the need to calm the situation, Fury did what he did best, lie "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…."

"I'm sorry, Nick," Stark cut in before the director could finish. He turned the monitor around so the others could see what was clearly on display, a SHIELD missile blueprint made using energy collected from the Tesseract. Stark grinned, "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Rogers shifted away in disappointment.

During the heated conversation, Felix entered the lab, completely oblivious of the tension in the room. He had an idea of what Tony was going to show him, but he wasn't sure. Felix had little understanding of the planet when he initially arrived. He doubted SHIELD would make much success with their research, given how long it had taken the other planets to comprehend Viltrumite's DNA. Earthlings were neither technologically advanced nor desperate enough. Felix wasn't so sure now. An invasion from space could have pushed Earth's leaders to take drastic steps and rely on forces over which they had no control.

Seeing the Viltrumite entering, Stark called out, "Ah Felix, just the man you want to see. Take a look at these."

"Stark. Don't." Fury pleaded.

Felix could see files on theoretical cloning processes and supersoldier serum synthesized from Viltrumites' blood on the screen. When he realized that they were already starting to decode his DNA, he was taken aback. It appeared that Viltrumites and human genetics were disturbingly similar, with around 99% compatibility. His blood contained the genetic map to humanity's evolution, which the World Security Council eagerly utilized in their plots.

Felix growled at Fury and said, "How do you even hope to control them, Fury?"

"You're restarting the supersoldier program?" Steve added in.

Thor and Natasha entered the lab at that precise moment. Natasha's gaze was drawn to Banner.

Banner glared back at her, enraged. "Did you know about this?"

Not caring about their argument, she said, "You might want to think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," Banner's frustration directed to the agent.

"Loki is manipulating you," She felt the need to urge the doctor. She didn't know how or when Loki planned to trigger the transformation.

"And you've been doing what exactly? I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I won't even touch the ethicality of creating sentient alien clones but I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." Bruce had his hands firmly holding onto the table.

"Because of them," Fury said, pointing at Thor and Felix.

"Us?" Thor asked. Felix, despite not saying anything, also stared at Fury for an answer.

"Last year, Earth had two visitors from outer space that could individually level a small town with ease." Fury's eyes darting between the two foreigners, "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"I have no desire to conquer Earth. Viltrum is far removed away from your world." Felix defended himself.

"And Asgard wants nothing but peace with your planet," Thor added in.

"Are we supposed to just believe you on that? Besides, you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

With his predictions becoming a reality, Felix felt anger rise in him due to SHIELD's hubris, "Like how you're planning to control the clones?"

"You had an idea of what we were doing, Wright. You didn't have a problem with it before, so why now?" Fury questioned.

"Because now I know you have the means and causes to do it," Felix replied.

"It's just an idea. A theory. It's a work in process." Fury cut off Felix's warning.

"What will you do after you win your war? What will you do to the clones after they have outlived their purpose?" Felix moved closer to the director.

"What would you have me do? Stay idling while forces beyond humanity's power play house on the planet?" Fury refuted. Unknown to the people in the room, the scepter pulsed with blue light, almost gleeing at its own ability to manipulate and escalate the situation.

"This" Thor emphasized the word, "Your meddling with the Tesseract, with the Viltrumite, with forces you can't hope to control is what drew Loki and his allies to Earth. It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asked with worries.

"You forced our hand! We had to come up with some…." Fury turned his ire to Thor.

"Alien genetics and nuclear deterrent! Cause that will calm everything right down." Stark interjected with his sarcasm.

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

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor scoffed at the bittings of the people around him.

"Do you not see our need to defend against outside forces?" Natasha asked in defense of SHIELD's plans.

"Not like this. Shut down the research while I'm still being civil, Nick Fury" Felix threaten the director.

"Or what? You're going to destroy the planet?" Fury replied, which silenced the room.

/ Ding /

The sound of the locator relieved the tension in the lab. Natasha trailed Banner as he walked over to the monitor screen on the other side of the room.

Felix stayed silent for a moment and said, "I'm getting some air. We're not done with this, Fury. You're walking on a tight rope." Then he made his way to the door.

"You and Thor are needed here for Banner." Fury spoke up, putting a halt to Felix's progress.

"What?" Banner asked with his attention still on the monitor.

"Do you treat your champions with this much distrust?" Thor said.

"They're not my champions," Fury added.

Natasha replied, "Loki is aiming to wake the hulk," which brought frowns upon everyone's faces.

Bruce was too focused on the locator now and could not hear what the agent just said. "Oh my god," the doctor breathlessly commented after seeing the location of where the Tesseract was.

/ Boom /

The helicarrier was rocked by a series of explosions. The force from the discharge separated everyone in the lab. Felix, floating over the destroyed floor, noticed Banner and Natasha down one or two floors. Bruce was clearly fighting to keep the "other guy" under control.

Felix noticed Fury gradually rising from the ground. The two people locked their glances at each other. The Viltrumite saw Fury mouthing, "You owe me." Then, with a heavy sigh, he swiftly plunged towards Banner and Natasha.