Chapter Text
In space, we see a floating staircase among the rocks. A tall woman with dirty blonde hair speaks to someone sitting in a chair with their backs turned.
"The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. One from which we both hail. The humans would wield its power." She takes and hands a scepter to a male figure, his face hidden. The scepter has a glowing blue gem near the tip.
"But our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead. And our force..." An alien warrior puts on their face mask, and in a ripple effect, see hundreds more alien warriors do the same thing. "...our Chitauri, will follow."
She continues to speak to the figure in the chair. "The world will be his... the universe, yours. And the humans, what can they do, but BURN?"
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Earth, at night. A mountain range in the desert. A helicopter speeds over the mountain at high speed. We pan up over the mountain and we see a giant base, covering many square miles. And there is a frantic evacuation in progress.
Within the base, agents, scientists, and other personnel rush around the base frantically. An intercom states "All personnel, evacuation order has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles for all campus evacuation." Security guards direct traffic. More agents assist people, some stuff the trunks of their cars and leave the campus. The helicopter continues over the base, which has a sign describing it as the "Joint Dark Energy Mission, Western Division; Project New Direction, NASA Space Radiation Facility; SHIELD Accelerator Test Facility." The intercom continues "This is not a drill. Emergency personnel proceed to your designated vehicles for all campus evacuation."
The helicopter hovers over a landing pad. There is a man in a suit waiting, wearing sunglasses, as the helicopter lands. He is Kurt Hummel, agent of SHIELD. The door opens and two people come out. First is a shorter woman with dark hair, also in a SHIELD uniform. She is agent Santana Lopez. Behind her comes a tall man, with curly hair and an eyepatch, wearing a trenchcoat. His name is Will Schuester, the director of SHIELD. The two approach the waiting man.
"How bad is it?"
"That's the problem, sir." Kurt removes his sunglasses, his mouth in a firm line. "We don't know."
They turn and enter the base. They take an elevator underground as Kurt describes what happened.
"Dr. Howell read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."
Schuester glances at him with a furrowed brow, "NASA didn't authorize Howell to go to test phase."
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event."
"It just turned itself on?" Santana asks, the surprise evident in her voice. Kurt gives her a curt nod.
"What are the energy levels now?" Schuester asks Kurt.
"Climbing. When Howell couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."
"How long to get everyone out?"
"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."
"Do better." Schuester says to Kurt, as Santana and him continue on. Kurt turns around and heads back to the surface. They head down a staircase as Kurt continues evacuation.
"Sir, evacuation may be futile."
"Should we tell everyone to go back to sleep?"
Santana sighs and says, "If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, we don't know the minimum safe distance. There might not be one."
"I know. I need you to make sure the Phase Two prototypes are shipped out."
Santana slightly raises her eyebrows. "Sir, is that really a priority right now?"
Schuester cuts in, sharply, "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." He continues to a doorway, turns back to look at her and orders, "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase Two on a truck and gone."
"Yes, sir." She approaches the two guards guiding the doorway, and beckons them towards her. "With me."
As Santana leaves with the guards, Will continues on to the Tesseract room.
It's a large, cavernous room, with banks of computers hooked up. In the middle, a glowing blue cube sits in a device, pointed toward a staging area nearby. Will makes his way over to a handsome man with dark hair. He is looking into a computer with small frown upon his face. This is Carl Howell, a scientist.
"Talk to me, Doctor." Schuester says as he makes his way towards the doctor.
Carl looks up from his screen and sees Schuester approaching him, "Director," he says in a way of greeting, and meets him halfway.
"Is there anything we know for certain?"
"The Tesseract is misbehaving."
Schuester arches a lone eyebrow, "Is that supposed to be funny?"
Carl slightly shakes his head and gestures with his hands. "The Tesseract's not only active, she's…behaving."
"How soon can you pull the plug?"
"She's an energy source. We turn off the power, she just turns it back on. If she reaches peak level- "
Schuester cuts him off, "We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."
"We don't have the harness, sir. My calculations are far from complete." Carl says, as Schuester turns to look at the device the Tesseract is connected to. "She's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of Gamma radiation."
Schuester turns back and faces Dr. Howell. "That can be harmful…" He says with a bit of significance. He looks around and asks, "Where's Agent Chang?"
Carl scoffs and shakes his head a bit, "The hawk?" He gestures up to the rafters near the ceiling over his shoulder. "Up in his nest, as usual."
Up on a balcony, a tall, Asian man in SHIELD tactical gear is observing the lab. This is Mike Chang, codename Hawkeye, another SHIELD agent. He's sitting on the rafters and is resting against a support beam, his eyes never stop scanning the scene below him. We hear the static of his comm device turning on and the voice of Will Schuester as he says, "Chang. Report."
He gets up and zip-lines down a rope.
"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Schuester says to Mike as they walk back toward the Tesseract.
"I see better from a distance."
"Well, have you seen anything that might set this thing off?"
"Doctor! It's spiking again," A scientist says from behind a computer screen and looks towards Dr. Howell. Carl heads over as Schuester and Mike step onto the platform, in front of the Tesseract machine, looking at it.
"No one's come or gone. Howell is clean. No contacts, no IM's." Mike crosses his arms and looks towards the director. "I think if there's any tampering, sir, it wasn't this end."
Schuester's brow furrows and looks up at Agent Chang. "At this end?" He asks.
Mike looks at the Tesseract and says, "Yeah. The cube is some kind of…doorway into space, right?" He shrugs and looks back at Schuester. "Well, doors open from both sides."
The cube sparks. Dr. Howell looks up from the computer screen, "What's that?"
It sparks again. Outside, Kurt is standing next to a truck when the ground shakes. Kurt grabs the truck for support.
Inside, in the garage, Santana turns and looks around her, hearing a creaking noise as the building shakes.
Back inside the Tesseract room, the cube sparks some more, bigger each time. Suddenly, a beam of energy shoots out of it, stopping at the staging area nearby. After several seconds, there is an explosion of energy. Some of the blue energy gathers near the roof and stays there, crackling.
Back on the platform, everyone realizes there is a person kneeling there. The person slowly stands to reveal a man holding a scepter with a blue glow near the tip. This is Jesse, the god of mischief from Asgard. Several guards move in slowly, guns drawn.
Jesse, who had been looking down, slowly looks up, grinning menacingly. He looks around at the approaching guards. Dr. Howell is looking on in awe and horror. Will and Mike are ready to act.
Schuester is the first to act and yells towards the man, "Sir, please put down the spear!"
Jesse looks down at the scepter, then back up. He then quickly thrusts it forward, firing a bolt of blue energy at them. Mike pushes Schuester out of the way as some computers explode. The guards and Mike then open fire. Jesse jumps at the guards, spearing one as bullets hit off him. He spins and throws some small daggers at the rest of the guards, embedding them in their necks. Jesse fires more energy at the scientists, making Mike dive out of the way. Jesse looks around, almost surprised that it's over that fast.
Mike staggers to his feet. Jesse leaps over to him. Mike reaches for his gun and tries to fire, but Jesse blocks it and holds his arm. Mike tries to fight back, but is surprised at the amount of strength by this one man.
"You have heart." Jesse touches the tip of the spear to Mike's chest and energy seems to enter his body. You see bright blue run through his veins as they move upward toward his brain. His eyes turn solid black before becoming ice blue. He takes his arm back from Jesse… and puts his gun away. Jesse moves to another agent and does the same as he's done to Mike.
Will, seeing this, pulls the cube from the machine it was in and shuts it in a briefcase. He then gets up to leave.
"Please don't." Jesse says, as he turns back to Schuester. "I still need that."
Will turns around slowly and says, "This doesn't have to get any messier."
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Jesse, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."
Carl, who had been checking the pulse of another scientist, hears this and approaches, "Jesse, brother of Samuel?"
Jesse's jaw clenches and he sneers in contempt at his brother's name.
Schuester notices Jesse's reaction, but says, "We have no quarrel with your people."
Jesse looks back towards Schuester and says simply, "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
"Are you planning to step on us?" Schuester asks with a slightly harder tone.
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."
"Free from what?"
"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-" He turns and places the spear tip on Dr. Howell's chest. The blue energy flows into him. "-you will know peace."
"Yeah, you say peace. I kinda think you mean the other thing."
The energy cloud brews darker. Mike notices, and steps towards Jesse.
"Sir, Director Schuester is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us." Mike sends a glare towards the director. "He means to bury us."
"Like the pharaohs of old." Schuester says with an edge.
"He's right," Carl says as he looks over a computer screen. He looks up and then adds, "The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
Jesse gives him a small nod and then turns towards Agent Chang and says, "Well then."
Mike quickly draws his gun and shoots Will, who drops the briefcase. Everyone else makes to leave, Mike picking up the briefcase as he, Jesse, Dr. Howell, and another agent leave the room.
They all enter the garage, Mike handing the briefcase to Carl. Santana comes over to meet them.
"We need these vehicles," Mike says, and points to two trucks.
Santana furrows her brow a bit, but doesn't question him. When she sees Jesse, she asks, "Who's that?"
"He didn't tell me," Mike says while walking over the truck.
The roof above is slowly crumbling. Jesse gets onto a pickup truck. Carl enters the passenger seat, holding the case.
Santana's brows furrow a bit more, but she stays silent. She slowly turns away.
In the Tesseract room, Will slowly sits up, taking the bullet out of a Kevlar vest. He speaks into his radio. "Lopez!" He grunts and then speaks into his radio again, "Do you copy?...Chang…has turned."
Back in the garage, Mike hears and draws his gun, spinning around. Santana dives behind a stack of boxes as Mike opens fire. He backs toward the car, firing his gun, and gets in. Santana peeks out and returns fire as Mike drives them away.
In the Tesseract room, Will staggers to his feet and rushes out as fast as he can. The energy cloud gets bigger and bigger above him. The lab is starting to fall apart.
Schuester speaks into his radio, and sends orders to Lopez, "Get the Tesseract. Shut them down."
In the garage, Santana throws her radio into the front seat of a Jeep. She jumps in after and speeds away, trying to catch up with Mike.
In the underground tunnel, many agents are chasing Mike's pickup. Jesse fires a bolt of energy from the spear, flipping a car over on its head - blocking the pursuing vehicles and fleeing cars.
In the Tesseract room, the portal begins to collapse as Will tries to escape. Falling debris misses him by a few inches.
In front of the building, Kurt is assisting evacuation, supervising guards as they wheel crates. An explosion rocks the building. They all fall as the roof dissolves faster.
"Let's just go," Kurt says, quickly. He sees the four guards try to pick up the case. "No-no-no! Leave it, leave it. Go!"
Back in the tunnel, Mike speeds up because he's coming up on an intersection. Santana comes speeding out of a side tunnel read ahead of them. She grabs the emergency brake, spinning the Jeep around - coming face to face with Mike, who shoots through her window. Santana ducks and returns fire, firing through the windshield.
Up top, Kurt and the guards climb into the canopy of a truck.
Kurt speaks into his radio, his words meant for the director. "We're clear upstairs, sir..." At the helicopter landing pad, Will runs to the waiting chopper. Over Schuester's radio we hear Kurt again as he says, "...we need to go."
Will gets into the last helicopter, which takes off as the ground beneath begins to crack.
In the tunnel, Mike fires at Santana one more time. She fires back, and finally Mike shrugs the Jeep off and swings in front of Santana. The SHIELD agent turns her Jeep around and continues to speed after them. In the Tesseract room, the energy cloud explodes.
Up above, the ground falls in on itself. In Will's helicopter, he watches in horror. The entire base slowly collapses in on itself. In the tunnel, the ceiling of the tunnel falls, trapping Santana and other agents underground. Jesse looks at the exit to see if they will make it out.
In the truck, Kurt and the others stare at the ground behind their truck - the ground is still collapsing, seconds behind their vehicle. But they get away in time. All of the expansive base...is just crumbling before their eyes.
Off in the desert, Jesse and the others escape the tunnel seconds before the exit is covered up by the fallen ceiling.
As they drive along, Will's chopper chases them. Mike drives frantically as Will shoots at them from the sky. Jesse blasts the helicopter with energy and it falls from the sky.
Will jumps to the ground right before it crashes, the rotor chewing up the ground.
Will rolls to his feet and continues to fire as the truck drives off in the distance.
"Director," We cut back to the truck, Kurt with a worried look on his face. He speaks into his radio again. "Director Schuester, do you copy?"
Back with Will, he picks up his radio, looking serious. Schuester speaks into his radio and says, "The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down." He then asks, "Lopez?"
Back in the tunnel, Santana gets out of her crushed vehicle.
Santana speaks into her radio, "A lot of men still under. Don't know how many survivors." Over her radio we hear Schuester's orders, "Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase." Santana sighs and then replies, "Roger that."
We go back to Kurt in the truck, listening intently to his radio, "Kurt, get back to base. This is a level seven. As of right now...we are at war."
After a frightened pause, Kurt speaks into his radio, "What do we do?" Back with Will, he puts his radio down, sighs, and thinks of what to do.