<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> 7:27 PM EST(nearly two hours after Tony's departure)<br/><strong>Tags:</strong> Loki</span></span><br/><hr/><br/>A blast-backwards instinct, Maria's troubled eyes opened, turning with weapon drawn, still down. Her muscles had ignited with pressure, her feet had gone numb instantly from adrenaline. Loki's percussive choice of words and nearly knocked her over, she held back a terrible scream, and her throat rattled in stead. She formed one word in immediate response as she lifted her pistol up.<strong>"ss-top"</strong>Her right hip-holster was empty and Loki was staring down the barrel of a gun. Her chest felt tight. She nearly pulled the trigger on him out of instinct. The safety had been taken off during the lightening reflex of drawing the weapon. As much as she wanted to empty the contents of her gun, she refrained, unsure of why, but firm in her decision.<br/><br/>The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't even know if eleven bullets to the chest would phase the god of mischief. The only thing that held her fire was curiosity. The last time he had been to this<em>planet</em>, the Avengers had nearly killed him. Maria Hill was still petrified, because the last time Loki had come to close to this<em>facility</em>, the entire operation had nearly gone down. His motives couldn't be that different this time. But his face was so calm. For a long moment, her entire body was still.<br/><br/><em>“Or will you shoot first? If you're going to be irrational about this I must respond with a firm hand.”</em><br/><br/>Maria's grip loosened and she let her arms go down a bit. Loki was coming at her with logic and a slow-paced form of intimidation. She knew a lot about this 'man'. He was stronger than he looked, and capable of things that she didn't fully understand. It was difficult to look at him for what she knew that he was. His presence had immediately forced her to feel like she was dreaming. The sting of her waking mind nearly forced her to panic. If simply talking to him caused this much disorientation, she couldn't imagine trying to fight him. Her eyes flashed over and over with every blink.<strong>"I know who you are." </strong>He must've known that by now, or he wouldn't have been here. Maria closed her eyes for a good half second in shame. Opening them up again, her fear was gone, and only the cold bitter face of an ex-marine was staring at him, now.<strong>"What do you want?"</strong><br/><br/>The tension in her body was pulsing at dangerous levels. She was shaking, the colt stayed steady in her muscular arms, but her knees were starting to move, and it forced her to re-position herself. This motion made it look like she was drawing backwards, so she let go of her gun with one hand and lowered it to her left side, away from it's holster. Everything but her face looked calm.<br/><br/><br/>