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Alaska

Percy strolled to the metal dome, nodding to the guards at the entrance as they stepped back, his sword sheathed in its scabbard strapped to his back. As he walked through the compound, people moved out of his path with their heads bowed down, unable to withstand the cold, emotionless mask he wore. He turned the corner, swiping his card before entering his room. He placed his sword on his bed and quickly stripped off his clothes, changing into a fresh set. He threw his clothes into the laundry chute and picked up his sword, making his way quickly to the lab on the top floor. As he neared the lab, he heard an obnoxious voice echoing down the hallway. His stride faltered for a moment, mouth twisted in annoyance when he realized who exactly S.H.I.E.L.D had called in to analyse the readings. Percy sighed, best to get this over and done with, he thought, moving to enter the code that would allow him entrance into the lab.

"Mr. Stark, I wasn't aware that Director Fury had sent you in." he drawled, stepping into the lab and nodding at a meek looking Bruce. Tony Stark grinned at the deadpan voice emanating from one of SHIELD's finest agents. "Agent! How nice of you to join us! I was beginning to think that you weren't coming down from that mountain of yours."

Percy felt his eye twitch in irritation as he scowled, "It's Agent Jackson Stark, its not that hard to remember. And it's a glacier, not a mountain."

Tony shrugged, eyes never leaving the screen in front of him, "Big, tall thingy which is hard to climb? Definitely a mountain."

Percy scowled even more, deciding to ignore the billionaire genius, he turned to Bruce Banner, "Doctor", he said, nodding to him, "What's your conclusion?" Bruce nodded back, drawing his hand across the screen to pull up a series of readings. "Well, as far as I can tell, there are traces of gamma radiation in the atmosphere, which I suppose is what was sent here for-"

"But gamma radiation isn't the only surprising thing, it's the fact that the energy readings are somewhat similar to, well, New York."

Percy turned around to see Tony staring at him, a serious expression on his face, and that alarmed him more than any word that came out of his mouth because Tony Stark was never ever serious unless something drastic was about to happen. And judging from to uncomfortable weight that had settled in his stomach, he was not going to like this drastic event one bit.

He glanced from Bruce Banner to Tony Stark, "What do you mean by 'somewhat similar to New York'?" he hissed, "Is there another portal opening above us anytime soon?" The two scientists shared a look, Bruce clearing his throat awkwardly, "We don't think that a portal is going to open, at least, not one like New York-"

"But one could open nonetheless?" Percy demanded.

The bespectacled scientist looked uncomfortable, "Well, in theory. We're comparing the readings taken when the Tesseract opened the portal in the SHIELD base, and the one which opened in New York. The patterns of the energy spikes are similar, but this one isn't as high, it's more of a fluctuation of energy, but the readings are not in the high range."

"Yet." Percy stared at the two geniuses, " Its not in the high range yet. Right?"

"No it isn't," Tony agreed, "And we're trying to prevent it from climbing higher." He shifted over to another corner of the lab, tinkering with the objects on the table as he spoke, "I would be jumping like a kid on a sugar rush by now but even I don't wanna deal with another...incident. Like New York."He said, voice devoid of any emotion.

Percy chose not to comment on his tone, choosing instead to walk over to where the genus was tinkering with a device. "What are you making?" He asked. Tony glanced at him briefly, "This is the baby that will save us if a portal ever decides to open!" he grinned. Percy stared at him, contemplating the consequences of decking the billionaire before deciding it wasn't worth it. He turned to the other, saner scientist in the room. "Translation?" he asked. Bruce chuckled, "its sort of an EMP device."

"EMP device? What for?"

Tony shook his head, giving a mock hurt look, "Kid, you really need to brush up on your science, the portal is made up of several energy wavelengths, so we're creating this baby," he gestured to the hunk of metal sitting on the table, "to disrupt the wavelengths such that the portal will close."

Percy looked at the metal lump, raising an unimpressed eyebrow, "It's a prototype..." Tony amended.

Percy rolled his eyes, "so this....thing... is supposed to be able to close a portal?"

"Well, not so much close as a forced shut down of the portal." Bruce said, "by disrupting the wavelengths, we're basically destroying the stability of the portal, kind of like what Natasha did in New York.."

Percy's eyes flashed, "Well, I suppose looking at readings all day would be boring, finish that thing quickly, I have a feeling we're going to need it sooner than we think."

Tony grinned, mimicking a flourishing bow, "Aye Aye captain!", ignoring the way Percy's scowl deepened as he marched out of the room.

As soon as the doors hissed shut, Bruce whirled around and leveled Tony with a heavy stare, "Tony, you shouldn't pick on him so much" he scolded, "he's just doing his job."

Tony waved his hand at Bruce, "Awww, but he's so fun to tease! Do you even see how his face contorts?"

"Tony..."

Tony turned to Bruce, putting down his wrench, "It's for his good Bruce, he needs to lighten up. I mean, you weren't there, well you were, but it was the Hulk, not you, so you probably won't remember anyway-"

"Tony" Bruce interrupted. "Anyway, that's not the point, the point is that you didn't see him, that day, you didn't see how he looked like. We all did, well, except for point break cause he was with his psycho little brother."

Tony turned fully to look at Bruce, "Have you ever see him smile?". "And that was rhetoric, don't answer that." He said, when Bruce opened his mouth. "He hasn't, that's why. In three years, he hasn't smiled a genuine smile Bruce. And that scares me because even Tasha has cracked a smile."

Bruce looked down, he had been introduced officially to the boy before, and had taken a liking to him if only for the fact that he didn't care about the other guy. He frowned down at his work, Tony's impromptu speech running through his head.

Percy marched out of the lab, the Canadians had complained of random power surges and shortages a few weeks before that left cities dark, only for the power to come back online by itself a few minutes later. Television screens would suddenly fizz and signals would be lost or scrambled. Any electronic device would suddenly stop working for a while, before it started working again. While this normally wouldn't have been under SHIELD's jurisdiction, they had managed to detect energy readings and slight traces of gamma radiation that were similar to the ones that the Tesseract gave off in the SHIELD base, and it was enough to prompt Fury to send in a couple of SHIELD agents and lab technicians. They used the spectrometers that Doctor Banner had calibrated aboard the Helicarrier to try to pinpoint the origin of the energy spikes, which led them to set up a base at the foot of the glacier, where the ground was stable and the scientists could get readings. Since there were no random aliens rampaging around, the Avengers weren't called in. Barton and Romanov were on separate missions, and Fury needed a high level agent to oversee the entire project. Hill was out of the question, and Coulson was still confined to desk jobs, and would probably stay that way if Fury had his way. So, that left Percy, who knew about the Avengers and everything related to them because he was at ground zero, the only high ranking agent left who had clearance to be involved in such extraterrestrial happenings. Not that he minded, he mused, this mission was actually quite refreshing. He hadn't been to Alaska in about four years and he was enjoying his time in the icy landscape. Well, more so than the rest of the base, who constantly complained about the perpetual cold. That, and the fact that being on the Helicarrier scared him. It was hard to get rid of the deep rooted fear that you were going to be struck down by lightning if you ever went higher than the height a Pegasus could take you. Of course, he thought bitterly, it's not as though Zeus had any reason to zap him into oblivion anymore. He shook his head, not wanting to think of the past, walking to the lone room in the basement. He placed a hand on the scanner, waiting for the cheerful beep of the machine to signal his entrance.

He waved away the salutes of the guards, facing the petite scientist at the corner of the room. "Riley, report."

The girl looked up at him, "Sir, there is practically nothing to report, all our results are inconclusive."

He narrowed his eyes, "How so?"

She chewed on her lip, "its like the problem which was reported that drew our attention sir, one minute everything is working fine, the next minute, any electronic devices stop working. Any scanners we have go haywire. All we can get is what we've already predetermined, that that thing is causing all of these problems."

Percy frowned thoughtfully, glancing at the blood red liquid swirling behind the glass like barrier at the back of the lab. He turned back to the scientist, "You haven't tried taking samples of the liquid? And where are the other two anyway?"

"Edward and Michael are upstairs, said they'd grab something to eat, they haven't had a proper meal since the day before." She said.

"The samples?" Percy prompted.

Riley wrung her hands nervously, "We couldn't get any samples sir. Every time we tried to get near that thing..." she waved her hand at the barrier as if asking him to try going near it. Percy frowned, walking over to the glass-like barrier, placing his palm on it. The second he did that though, the swirling red liquid struck out viciously, slamming into the barrier with such force that hairline fractures could be seen on it. He flinched black reflexively, hand coming up to grip the hilt of his sword before instinctively recognizing that there was no danger. He looked at the fractures, narrowing his eyes as they smoothed over again. The door hissed open to reveal two male scientists who looked completely flustered, as if they had ran the whole way down from the cafeteria, which, Percy thought, they probably had. One of the men piped up, "Oh god, we're sorry sir! Its just, we wanted to take a short break-" Percy waved down their concerns, choosing instead to turn to Riley, "Explain this." He demanded.

"It's what I meant sir, we can't take any samples because we can't get near it. I know that you've altered the barrier to allow us to get in but we can't even get close to that barrier. You touching it was the closest its allowed." She said.

Percy frowned thoughtfully, glancing at the sinister liquid twisting and coiling like a snake behind the barrier. He could almost hear it screaming, feel the power held within the innocuous form of a liquid. He turned to the three scientists, "Continue your scans, it's not possible that nothing can be done." The three of them looked uncertainly at each other, but not daring to disobey him, nodded their assent. He left the lab, trying so very hard to resist the siren call of the well of power floating behind him.