<div class="floatleft">(http://i48.tinypic.com/wr8mh.jpg)</div><br/><br/><hr/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><strong>Name:</strong> Maria Hill<br/><strong>Title:</strong> Director of S.H.E.I.L.D. <br/><strong>Location:</strong> The Armoury<br/><strong>Time:</strong> 7:32 PM EST(nearly two hours after Tony's departure)<br/><strong>Tags:</strong> Loki</span></span><br/><hr/><br/>With her pistol on the table after Loki's cool suggestions, Maria was left with only one weapon, hidden under her jacket. 'He probably knows that it's there.' Her expression loosened and she turned her back. The tension in the room was settling on a balance beam. She wanted to create some distance.<br/><br/>Hill looked away to hide her calm, and she took a few steps as he spoke, as the icy wind swept in.<br/><br/>He had been speaking madness, 'the drivel of a demi-god'; and, his display of cold wind and ice had pushed Maria's threshold of reality.<br/><br/>She didn't believe that any of this was possible, even after New York City, even after she watched Loki come through the Tesseract the first time. It was all logical. His pattern was human.<em>This</em>was a disaster. The display was as unsettling as Loki had hoped for. She felt like an ant underneath him. She had been shaken into her instincts now, and Loki was slowly convincing her to relax. her weak knees only got worse with the cold, and the very presence of this god forced her down.<br/><br/>The shaking tension was coming from her restraint. It was her first day as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and she was afraid that she would lose in a fight to this 'creature, whatever the hell he was.' But as she collapsed to the ground like a child in front of a screaming father, Loki's crescendo slipped into her mind.<br/><br/><em>“You are that leader, Maria. You should be Earth's mightiest hero,”</em><br/><br/>Inflamed with a sudden stream of thought, Maria justified her next action with brash counter-intuitive determination.<strong>"Oh... and it's you of all people."</strong>He was a snake above her, a perfect distraction, chaos in form. She was furious.<br/><br/><em>'He had called me a leader, Earth's mightiest hero. It sounded like music, even if hissed from a serpent. - He's trying to pawn me, it's so clear, and so crucial. His wisdom is my wisdom, his goals are my goals. - But he is not of this plane. Fuck. He is not of this plane. - If what he says is true, there is no diction that can prove him right, only me. Only me.'</em><br/><br/>Maria Broke her tension, and stood up. She grinned in his direction to test him, it faded quickly. her head was tilted, her feet were tight against the ground.<strong>"No punches pulled,"</strong>Her head shook in both directions quickly.<strong>"I want to see how strong you are."</strong>In the next second, Maria was charging at Loki with her left elbow in front of her. She imagined a large right hay-maker, so she twisted her back, and strung it up tightly. Pivoting on her right foot, she squared herself in front of him. With all the force Maria could bring forth, she snapped her muscles and drove her knuckles toward Loki's left eye socket.<br/><br/>Brows sturdy, jaw tight, it looked like Maria had a mouth-guard in-between her teeth. This was a sport for now, he had voiced her strength, and she aimed to prove it. If she truly was Earth's mightiest hero, then she would tackle Loki right now, and solve the problem as action item one. She certainly, wasn't going to bow at his knees, and let him command her. As she launched into her fight with a god, she didn't think about it logically, she was still running on base instincts. She was human enough to lash out against Loki, it only seemed right, no matter how she made the pieces of the puzzle fit together.<br/><br/>His largest offence was irreversible. He had made the suggestion that drove her forward. He had read her personality like a book. She had nowhere to turn now, no real path to take, every decision that she could make from now on, just felt like she was playing into his hand. Her goals were justified, and his vile whispers would not go down as her motivations! She would not allow it, her fist was tight, her confidence was burning hot. She nearly smiled.<br/><br/>