CHAPTER 1
Tony smiled triumphantly at the baffled Dr. Banner, content with the fact that the doctor would not be able to see his show of pride in the dim light. His burst of happiness was short lived as other thoughts interrupted the smug feeling of seeing his partner stare dumbly at the object. Tony had spent hours yesterday trying to figure out where the hell it had come from, and what it meant – why it had been sitting in the middle of the road at the exact moment he'd come around in his convertible.
"How..?" the words spluttered out of the mystified doctor's mouth as he struggled to recover coherent speech.
"Surprised?" Tony inched closer to the scientist, cautiously extending a hand to wave around in front of his face. The man only blinked numbly, still staring at the strange glowing orb of light like his life depended on it.
"More like – staggered..." Dr. Banner mumbled slowly, blinking more rapidly now to clear the shock from his mind. Now that he'd gotten past the first hurdle, the curious scientist part of him demanded answers.
"How did you find that? Where did you find it!? The amount of radium that would have needed collecting – not to mention the fact that most Triboluminescent chemicals need to be crushed...whoever made this is really experienced."
"I found that it contains carefully crushed amounts of sucrose and the only glows when the lights are off." He clicked his fingers and Jarvis quickly flicked the lights back on. The computer robot moved over to the corner, obediently keeping quiet. "It's only triggered by electrical energy but seems to have this random...flare sometimes – don't know why though."
"Flare?"
"Yeah – like, it spits out this shrieking sound and pulses blue/white."
"Why?" Bruce bent down to study the rock. Tony twisted his lips to one side, contemplating the object. His mind raced with the thoughts that erupted from somewhere in his brain, colliding with the other thoughts that were completely off topic. He threw muscled hands up into the air and strode out of the room, suddenly feeling very confused. His head was starting to get the stabbing pains again. Bruce followed behind him, keeping the flood of questions at bay. He sensed his partner wasn't feeling too chatty, but was too shy to ask why.
"It doesn't make sense..." small mumbled sentences were all the curious scientist caught from his abnormally unresponsive partner. Tony was always so witty and talkative, never missing a chance to tease everyone about their opinions and mistakes. This new version of him was far too odd to offer any comfort to Bruce.
"Hey – err, Tony?"
"Yeah what?" he turned around briskly, eyebrows furrowed together in a worried line above deep brown eyes.
"What's bothering you, really?" the shy scientist was not usually one for commenting on people's personal lives, but he couldn't help but ask – after all, this was his colleague. They'd been through a lot together during Loki's attack, and were now practically inseparable. Just because he was quiet did not mean he didn't notice things.
"Nothing Bruce. You don't need to worry – I'm just a little miffed that a piece of glowing stone can be so goddam hard to figure out. I've been trying hours to find what the hell is in that thing! And why would it just appear out of nowhere, in the middle of the street for god's sake!? I could've run right over it if I hadn't slowed down for the lights."
"You slow down for lights?" Bruce raised a sceptical brow, not fully believing his statement. Tony might be cautious but he was definitely not slow.
He received a baleful glare from his partner who abruptly turned and stalked away to the bedroom, grabbing a can of coke from the desk on his way. "I'm going to figure crap out alone. Catch you later Bruce."
"Bye..." he replied, a tad too late. The click of the door was the only sound he heard after that.