Fury looked at the ground in front of himself in appalled disbelief, making the two men before him shuffle in embarrassment, looking down. Fury looked back up, expression still there.

"Tell me again..." he began slowly. "HOW THIS HAPPENED?!" At the loud voice the little boy seated on the floor between the three looked up, brown eyes wide, startled and slightly fearful. Fury sighed, rubbing his face and calling for another cup of coffee. The two scientists had better have a good explanation for this.

0000000

"Hey, how 'bout a shrink tank?" Stark asked abruptly, looking up from where he was doodling on a sheet of paper. Banner looked up at him and immediately seemed worried.

"I don't think we should be messing around with any more of your inventions, Tony," he began carefully. "Remember what happened when you tried to make a terminator?" Tony shrugged.

"Hey, it was a good idea, but the programming was just a bit too realistic! What could go wrong with a shrink tank?"

"I don't think that S.H.I.E.L.D would want us messing around with a shrink tank," Banner continued, purposefully evasive. "And i don't think that it matters that we're at your house, they'll find out about it and - "

"Hey!" Tony interrupted, holding his arms out at shoulder height. "A mini Fury." Bruce stopped mid sentence and closed his mouth, looking reluctantly thoughtful. "That's all i have to say." He sighed in frustrated interest, looking down and back up a grin on his face.

"Fine, let's do it."

"JARVIS?" Tony asked, turning around to face the room.

"Yes sir?"

"We're back in work mode."

"Yes sir." It may have been the radiologist's imagination, but the AI seemed to speak a bit too enthusiastically to be simply obeying orders.

0000000

Pepper's eyes widened as she saw the amount of paperwork that she had to run by Tony. With Banner around, that was virtually impossible: Tony got sucked into his own little world and getting REAL work done never happened. Suddenly, a loud rumbling was heard throughout the house and Pepper immediately tensed up, making sure that nothing fell off of her desk. She stood up aggravated: her boss was NOT going to ruin this building right after they finished fixing it with the incident with Rhodey.

"JARVIS, what are they doing down there?" the secretary asked, walking towards the stairs to the lab.

"It appears as though they are in their 'work mode' as Mr. Stark puts it." She rolled her eyes, muttering something about him being self-destructive, and was halfway down the steps when a massive flash of bright light exploded from the lab, rattling her vision.

"I think that worked..." came Bruce's voice. "Levels are holding steady..."

"JARVIS! Is Agent Coulson here?" she asked, retreating back up the steps, fearing for her own safety.

"Yes, he is talking with Agent Romanoff."

Elsewhere on the same floor, Agent Coulson, who was conversing with Natasha, felt the rumbling as well and knew who was responsible for it before he even asked. He nearly grimaced and looked at Romanoff.

"Stark?" she asked, eyebrow raised. Coulson rolled his eyes.

"Who else?" She smirked. "Could you give me a moment, I'll be right back." Coulson turned around and was walking to the lab when Pepper came fleeing back up the steps.

"Him and Banner are down there, and i have no idea what they're doing," she said, annoyed. Coulson gave his small smile and began heading down the steps.

"I'll be right back."

"Wait, are you sure you want to be doing that?" she called after him, worried. "They had a bright flash of light and something about levels holding steady, I don't think –"

"Ma'am, thank you for your concern, but I have dealt with people like Stark for a long time. I'll be right back." Pepper watched in some trepidation as the agent walked down the stairs, completely sure in his ability to handle the situation.

"Mr. Stark," he said, walking into the lab just as a whirring sound was growing in volume. "What are you –"

"First test subject!" came Tony's playfully vengeful voice followed by a loud electronic noise. Coulson found he had walked right into some weird contraption thing that looked like something out of The Prestige when a loud white light blinded him and he heard Banner say from his levels status station,

"Whoa…what's going on here?" He looked at Tony and Coulson. "Tony - WAIT! DON'T DO THAT!"