Tony and Bruce were in their lab tinkering with a strange device the team had found during a mission. It didn't look like anything anyone has seen before. There was a high possibility of what they had was alien technology.

Bruce poked at the device with a screwdriver. "All tests are negative. Tony, I don't think we're going to get any information off of this. Maybe it doesn't even work anymore. It could just be broken which would explain the odd shaping of it."

"Come on, we can't give up just yet," Tony said, "We just started. So what if the first fifty tests didn't work, something has to." He slammed his fist onto his right hand. "We just need to find the right one."

"Yeah alright. I think my exhaustion is making me pessimistic about this." He paused for a moment. "Too bad Thor isn't around. There's a chance he would know what this is."

"True, but he went on a mission with his brother and Steve. I still can't believe that Loki is on our side now. It just feels so," Stark hesitated, "wrong."

Bruce chuckled, "Yeah a lot happened when I was in space."

Tony rolled his eyes. "We all heard the story, several times."

"Anyways I'm gonna get us a snack. Any requests?" Bruce asked as he got up from his chair.

He simply shook his head. "Anything is fine with me."

As Bruce left to receive snacks Tony spun around in his chair. He dragged himself and the chair to the center table. Then he grabbed the device from the table to observed it.

The device was metal and had a silver color to it. It's sphere shape contained tiny holes around it but even with the holes, you can't see what's inside. Nothing could go in the pockets. An invisible barrier could be surrounding it.

Tony sighed after examining and leaned back in his chair. He began throwing the sphere in the air and catching it. On the fifth toss, he missed the catch and the orb fell to the ground. When hitting the floor, the device emitted red light.

"What the-?"

Stark slowly got off the chair and cautiously walked towards the glowing device. He bent down to observe it once again. Tony poked at it, hoping something would react. It was then when the orb opened up.

Contained inside was a red sparkling gem. He reached out to grab the gem but was immediately engulfed in bright, blinding light.