- Cut to a lovely looking warehouse in Eastern Europe, where guys in official-looking uniforms are tormenting a redhead tied to a chair.
- Turns out, she's the Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), about to set these chumps up but good.
- The fun and games are interrupted by a phone call from Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), who threatens to carpet bomb the building unless they put her on the phone.
- It's SHIELD; they need her to come in like right now.
- She proceeds to beat the snot out of everyone in the room and then break free of the chair. In that order.
- She gets to go recruit Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to help them track the Tesseract's radiation.
- She finds him in India, treating the poor. (Because Bruce Banner is the best.)
- After a very tense conversation, he agrees to come in.
- Meanwhile, Fury tries to convince the mysterious people behind SHIELD that getting these guys together is a good idea.
- Cut to Steve Rogers, beating the snot out of way too many punching bags and stressing over the accident that left him frozen for sixty-odd years.
- Fury shows up and asks for his help in getting the Tesseract back; he's a good soldier, so he's in.
- Off in New York, Iron Man puts the finishing touches on an arc reactor capable to powering his whole building in perpetuity.
- He and his gal Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) are interrupted by Agent Coulson.
- Coulson needs Tony's help; Tony gives him all kinds of grief, but, with a little nudging from Pepper, agrees.
- Captain America trades heartfelt-but-kind-of-awkward-banter with Agent (and Number-One Cap Fan) Coulson on the way to the SHIELD Helicarrier.
- Cut to Loki and his diligent team of zombots, working on the Tesseract.
- He takes a break to chat with his evil alien partners, who want to stress how cranky they will be if he fails to deliver the Tesseract.