'Adopted huh?'
S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier
Somewhere above mainland USA

With everyone back safe and relatively sound back on the Helicarrier, the team sat huddled around the video transmission from the holding cell that had been designed to hold the Hulk, however it now held a slightly pissy God. Jennifer glanced up slightly to see Steve watching her as the small bruise on her cheek became more and more noticeable from her fight with Loki, she just smiled at him assuring him she wasn't hurt before looking back to the VT.

"Well..." Loki drawled, "It's an impressive cage, not built for me I don't think."

"No." Fury replied as he opened the cover to show the release button. "-made for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh. I've heard." Loki commented, "A mindless beast that makes a play that he's still a man, how desperate are you?" He asked, "-to call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

Fury scoffed, "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't control and you talk about peace yet you kill because it's fun." He smirked, "You might not be too glad that you did."

Loki smirked, "It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract - to have unlimited power, and for what?" He asked, "A warm life for man-kind to shade in and then to be reminded of what real power is..."

Fury rolled his eyes as he begun to walk away, "Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something.."

Jennifer reached across the table to switch the VT off, knowing that no one really wanted to see Loki for much longer than they had to. He had already caused enough trouble.

Bruce stood up from the round table with an amused smirk on his face, "He really grows on ya' you know,"

Steve sighed crossing his arms over his chest, "Loki is going to drag this out," He looked over at Thor, who stood uneasy a few feet away, "What's his play?"

"He has an army." Thor commented, "The Chitauri, they are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people and they will win him the Earth and in return for the Tesseract,"

"An army?" Steve questioned casting a glance over to Jennifer who bowed her head slightly with a small smirk, "From space?"

"So. He's building another portal." Bruce commented, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for..."

"Selvig?" Thor questioned with peak interest, having recognised the name from his last journey to Earth.

"He's an Astrophysicist," Bruce commented,

Thor shook his head, "He is a friend."

"What I don't understand is why Loki let us take him in the first place," Jennifer spoke up pushing herself up from the table, "I mean it's not like he's leading the army from inside that cell."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce laughed, "That guys' brain is like a bag full of cats, you can smell the crazy on him."

"Have care of how you speak." Thor warned, "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard," He defended, "And he is my brother."

Natasha raised her eyebrow as she looked over to the blonde, "He killed eighty people in two days,"

"He's adopted," Thor offered as if it was a decent excuse to separate the two. Jennifer - as much as she tried to contain it - burst out laughing, her hands gripped over her mouth as they turned to look at her amused as she tried to compose herself.

"I am so sorry." She gasped out between giggles, "That caught me off guard so bad.."

"I think it's about the mechanics.." Bruce offered taking the attention away from Jennifer as she tried to calm down. "Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?"

"A stabilising agent," Tony stated as he walked into view, no longer sporting his iron-man get up, but a finely pressed navy suit instead, "-means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I. ," He walked over to Thor patting his arm hesitantly, "No hard feelings point break," He commented, "You've got a mean swing," He stepped up onto Fury's podium looking around for a second, "Also means that he can keep the portal open as wide and long as he wanted." Jennifer cleared her throat catching her friend's attention, "That man is playing Galaga!" Tony announced pointing over to one of the Tech-Analysts, "Thought we didn't notice but we did." He turned to Maria as if he hadn't said anything, "How does Fury even see these?"

Maria shrugged, "He turns,"

Tony sighed, "Sounds exhausing," He commented, "Rest of the raw materials Barton could get his hands on pretty easily with the only main compontent that he would need is a power source of a high energy density."

"When did you become an expert of Thermal Nuclear Astrtophysics?" Maria asked as Jennifer arched her brow at the men wondering how he knew so much when they had spent the night drinking his scotch and reading up on Loki.

"Last night." He replied, looking over to Jennifer, "You were asleep don't worry." Steve looked over at her confused. Why would she have been sleeping at Stark's? "The packet? Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked a little harsher than he intented which caught Jennifer's attention.

"He's got to heat that cube to at least 120,000,000 Kelvin to just break through the barrier," Bruce replied.

"Unless Selvig has already figured out how to stabilise the Quantum tunnelling effect," Tony threw back.

"Well," Bruce drawled, "If he could do that then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet!"

Tony grinned, "Finally someone who speaks English!"

Steve turned to look at Jennifer who just smirked at the befounded look on the Captain's face. "Is that what just happened?"

Tony moved to shake hands with Bruce, "It's good to meet you Dr. Banner, your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled and I am a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into a green rage monster."

"Thanks?" Bruce replied unsure.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube," Fury correxted, "I was hoping you would join him."

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve spoke up, "It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

Fury shook his head, "I don't know about that but it is powered by the cube. I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor shook his head confused, "I do not understand."

"I do" Steve said almost excitedly, Jennifer smiled knowing she had played the Wizard of Oz audio tape for him a couple of times during his 'sleep,' Steve smiled over at her. "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play Doctor?" Tony questioned ,

"This way then," Bruce replied as both men got up to disappear back down the hallways.

"Mind if I tag along?" Jennifer asked pushing herself up from the table, "I know a few things about radiation," She winked at Tony as she swirled the bright blue flames around her finger tips.

"Come on then pyromaniac," Tony laughed gesturing for her to follow them. Jennifer smirked walking past Steve as she squeezed his shoulder gently causing the older man to smile as she passed. "Easy now spangles!" Steve glared off in the direction that Tony had walked off in.

(Break Here)

With the three of them safe inside the lab, Tony secured the doors whilst Jennifer moved to open up one of the encrypted computers the lab-tech had left them. "The gamma readings are the same as the ones documented in Selvigs' notes," She commented not really tuning in to what Tony was rambling on about, "This should take weeks to process but with the help of a certain agent we got this down.."

She perked up hearing Bruce mutter something about New York and breaking Harlem? "Don't worry, I promise a stress free environment," Tony stated, "No surprises,"

Just like that he electrcocuted Bruce on the side with a mini cattle-prod. "Hey!" Steve barked from the door, his eyes darting over to Jennifer who had her hand clamped over her chest, "Are you nuts!"

"Jury's out!" Tony commented, "You really have a lid on that thing don't you?" He asked Bruce, "What is it? Jazz? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve questioned,

Tony shrugged with a small smirk, "Funny things are."

Steve took a step forward, clearly unamused, "Threatening the safety on everyone on-board isn't funny," He looked over to Bruce, "No offence"

Bruce sighed, "It's alright," He commented, "I wouldn't have come on-board if I couldn't handle pointy things,"

"You're tip-toeing big guy, you really need to strut." Tony piped up causing Jennifer to roll her eyes as she hopped up onto the counter top just behind Steve.

Steve frowed, "You need to focus on the problem."

"You think I'm not?" Tony scoffed, "Why didn't Fury call us in earlier? Why now? What isn't he telling us?" He fired off throwing the packet of blueberries over to Jennifer who was ready waiting to catch them, "Can't work out the equation until I know all of the variables."

"You think Fury is hiding something?" Steve asked.

Jennifer sighed catching the Solider's attention, "Steve think about it," She replied, "He's 'the' spy, his secrets have secrets." She gestured to all of them, "He spied on all of us, even Bruce."

Steve arched his brow, "Doctor?"

"-a warm light for all man kind, Loki's jab about the cube," Bruce spoke up as Steve nodded. Bruce looked over to Tony, "I think that was meant for you, even if Barton didn't tell him anything about the Tower, it is still all over the news."

"Stark Tower?" Steve asked, "That big ug-" Tony shot him a look, "Building in New York?"

"It's powered by Arc Reactor, self sustaining energy with the building able to run itself for well over a year." Jennifer commented.

Tony shrugged. "It's a prototype," He replied, "I am kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"So, in a case of missing energy boxes," Jennifer smirked, "Why wait to bring them all in now,"

Bruce agreed with her, "I mean what are they doing in the energy business in the first place," He commented, "Probably should look into that-"

"Already on it," Jennifer piped up turning her computer screen round so that they all could see the decoding software, "As soon as our decryption software kicks in-"

Steve shot her a look. "I thought you were an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"I am" She defended not liking the way he was looking at her for one second, "However- This does not feel right - it is all just a little bit too fishy for my liking."

"JARVIS and Fletch have been working at it since we got back from Germany," Tony explained, "In a few hours we will know every dark secret that this place has ever had,"

Steve scoffed, "And you were worried about why they didn't want you around?"

Tony rolled his eyes, "An Intelligency agency who fears intelligence - historically not awesome."

"I think Loki is trying to wind us up," Steve commented, "This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he could succeed." He looked straight at Tony, "We have orders and we need to follow them,"

"Well, following hasn't ever really been my style." Tony shot back,

Steve's demeanour changed and if she couldn't have guessed already, Jennifer knew that he wasn't too fond of Stark, "Oh." He drawled, "and you're all about the style aren't you."

Tony smirked, "Of all the people in this room, who is A) wearing a spangly suit and B) not of use?"

Bruce sighed, "Steve are you honestly telling me that some of this doesn't sound a little bit funny to you?"

"Just find the cube.." Steve muttered before walking out of the lab.

Jennifer shot Tony a look before walking off after the blonde, he wasn't walking so fast so she rounded the corner with the hope to catch up with him. "Steve!" She spoke up but he ignored her and just kept walking. "Ste- Come on Rogers! I will set your hair on fire and you won't eve- ooof" She gasped out as Steve spun around quickly sending her crashing into his chest. His arms shot out to secure round he rwaist to prevent her falling. "Wh-"

"Why are you following me?" Steve asked.

"I had you worried, now you've got me worried." She replied with a small smile, to which he returned, "Now, let's go see what they are hiding."

Steve smirked down at her before they continued their short walk to the end of the hall, where Steve pried open the secured door. Jennifer fiddled with her key card that would have opened the door to the lock-up, but she wouldn't deprive herself of watching him pry the door open. They snuck through the lower ground before pulling their way up onto the over-head walk-way. "You sure about this?" She asked,

Steve smirked, "Your computer could take some hours right?" She nodded, "Well we're gonna work faster,"

She smirked in return as she flipped herself over the metal railings as gracefully as she could to land in front of one of the crates. She raised her brow as she read the graph on front, she looked up to see Steve hovering over her - his face set like stone. "Did you know about this?" He demanded.

"No." She told him honestly, "I've been gone from this for a good year now - I left when you did." He sighed, "Don't you trust me?"

Steve sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he muttered quietly under his breath. "More than I should" All that Jennifer heard was his next sentence, "Let's get back,"

She nodded watching as he grabbed one of the weapons from the holder, "What are you doin' Steve?"

Steve huffed, "Proving a damn point."

(Break Here)

Jennifer and Steve walked back to the lab in silence, none of the agents that past them didn't seem to bat an eyelid as the pair passed, still donned in their suits and the mighty Captain America carrying a huge gun. Jennifer caught eyes with Steve as they walked, she cleared her throat softly.

"Steve," She muttered, "Do you really think that you should be waving that around?"

"Trust me," He replied with a small smile as she rolled her eyes, "It's not like you're the one carrying it Jennifer,"

Both of them curved round the corner to see Fury standing in front of Tony and Bruce, "What are you doing Mr Stark?"

"I've been kind'a wondering the same thing." Steve stated placing the weapon down onto the counter top with a thud.

Fury frowned, "You are supposed to be locating the Tesseract,"

"We are," Jennifer replied, "The model is locked and we're going through the signatures now," She smirked, "As soon as we know, you'll know."

Tony hummed to himself, "But-" He paused, "What is phase two I wonder?"

Steve and Jennifer both looked down at the weapon, "Computers were a lil' slow,"

"Fletch," Fury sighed, "We gathered everything we could on the cube but this doesn't mean tha-"

Tony cleared his throat as he turned the screen around to show the blueprints for what looked like missiles, "I'm sorry.." He laughed, "You were saying?"

Steve shook his head, "I was wrong director." He muttered, "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Thor and Natasha entered the lab looking between the remainder of their 'team,' "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment Doctor."

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." Bruce shot back,

Natasha shook her head, "Loki is manipulating you,"

Seeing the rage build up behind Bruce's eyes, Steve took a few steps over to Jennifer so that he was standing in front of her, shielding her from whatever could happen.

"And you're doing what exactly?" Bruce questioned angrily.

Natasha smiled, "You didn't come here just because I batted my eyelashes at you."

And I am not leaving just because you get a little twitchy." He snapped, "What I want to know is why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction?!"

"Because of him." Fury stated jabbing his thumb towards Thor.

Thor looked at the man in disbelief, "Me."

"Last year we have an arrival from another world who held a grudge, and destroyed a small town." Fury stated, "We learned that not only were we not alone, but we were hugely and hilariously outdone,"

Thor protested, "My people are at nothing but peace with your people!"

Fury shook his head, "You're not the only people out there though." He replied, "And you are not the only threat! The world is filling up with people who cannot be matched - they cannot be controlled."

Steve scoffed, "Like you controlled the cube?"

Thor took a threatening step towards Fury, "It was your work on the Tesseract that drew Loki to this world, and his allies! It is a signal to the other realms that the Earth is ready to face a higher form of war!"

"Higher form?" Steve muttered.

"They forced our hand," Fury stated, "We had to come up with something!"

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony scoffed, "'Cause that always calms everything down."

"Remind me how you made your fortune Stark?" Fury barked,

"I'm sure if Tony still made weapons he'd be neck deep-" Jennifer threw her hand up to cover Steve's mouth before he could finish his sentence. Steve's eyes jumped down to stare at her. She shook her head.

"Hold on." Tony protested, "How did this end up about me?"

Steve rolled his eyes as Jennifer moved her hand, "I'm sorry isn't everything?"

Thor laughed, "I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Excuse me?" Fury questioned, "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

Natasha took a step forward into the middle of the argument, to throw her cents into the party, "Are you boys really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D monitors every potential threat!"

"Captain America and Skylight are on a threat list!" Bruce demanded in disbelief causing Steve and Jennifer looked at each other amused.

Jennifer cleared her throat, "Speaking of that." She started, "Someone want to tell me why I am such an extremely high threat?" Her temper was wavering, "I've been a glorified nanny for the past year and a half, the most terrifying thing about me is my time-outs."

"It's a precaution Fletch," Natasha warned.

"You're on that list," Tony mentioned to Steve, "Are you above or below the angry bees?"

"Precaution!" Jennifer scoffed, "Are you out of your mind Widow? I don't see you on a damn watch-list!" Natasha glared at her, "Oh what? Classified"

Steve looked at Tony angrily, "One more crack Stark-"

"Threatened!" Tony announced, "I feel threatened."

"I'll make you feel threatened in a minute Tony if you don't watch what you're saying!" Jennifer snapped.

Something had taken over their tempers.

Tony smirked, "What? Defending your little frozen boyfriend Fletch."

"You speak of control,"Thor laughed, "Yet you court chaos!"

"It's his MO, isn't it, I mean what are we - a team?" Bruce laughed sarcastically, "No. NO! We are a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away." Fury warned.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam." Tony stated watching as Jennifer rolled her eyes at him as the flames began to twirl around her fingers.

"You know damn well why!" Steve snapped, "Back off."

Tony smirked getting in his face, "I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah big man in a suit of armor take that off and what are you?" Steve laughed taking no notice of the threat.

"Genius. Billionaire. Philanthropist." Tony replied smugly.

"I know men with none of that who are worth ten of you." Steve shot back, "I've seen the footage, the only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

Tony scoffed, "I think I'd just cut the wire."

"Always a way out," Steve commented, "You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony asked, "Like you?" He took a step towards him, "You're a laboratory experiment, everything that's special about you came out of a bottle."

"And what?" Jennifer barked taking a few steps so that she was almost nose to nose with Tony, anger flared up in her eyes as the flames danced around her arms. "Everything that made me came out of a damn bottle - I was his damn experiment!" She jabbed her thumb at Fury, "You gonna tell me that there is nothing special about me huh Stark?"

"Agent Romanov," Fury instructed, "Would you escort Dr Banner back to his-"

"Where?" Bruce demanded, "You rented out my room."

"That cell was built as a precaution-"

"In case you needed to kill me," Bruce snapped, "-but you can't I know - I tried!" The team stopped arguing to stare at him, "I got low, and I didn't see an end, so do you know what I did? I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spat it out!" He yelled, "I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freakshow and put everyone here at risk."

Jennifer found herself slowly reaching for the gun that was holstered just inside her tall boots as Bruce took a step towards Natasha, "You wanna know my secret Agent Romanov, you wanna know how I stay calm?" He demanded. Jennifer slowly raised her gun from her boot.

"Dr. Banner," Steve stated as everyone noticed his hand now rested on top of the Scepter. "Put the scepter down.."

Sorry kids," Bruce said calming down a tiny notch, "You don't get to see my party trick"

Steve turned to look down at Jennifer who seemed to be shrinking in against him, "You alright?" He asked, she nodded up at him as she slowly tucked her gun back into her boot. "A gun really?"

"What?" She whispered, "It's a precaution."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

Tony jumped in, "I can get to it quicker."

"I beg to differ." Jennifer shot back.

Thor protested, "The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it;"

"You are not going alone." Steve said gripping Tony's arm who had just stopped to look at him.

"Oh and you're stopping me." Tony laughed.

"I will." Jennifer confirmed stepping between the two of them.

Steve frowned, "Put on the suit and find out."

"I am not afraid of you." Tony replied, "Her-" He motioned to Jennifer, "Maybe - but you?"

"Put on the suit." Steve practically growled at him, making Jennifer look up at him through wide eyes.

"What-"

Before Bruce could manage to get the rest of his words out the room erupted into flames as en explosion ripped through the lab. The flames surrounded them all as Natasha and Bruce disappeared out of the lab window down towards the control room, Fury and Thor went down like logs and Tony, Steve and Jennifer went flying back against the wall.

"Jenn!" Steve rasped out panicked as he found the brunette lying beside him, her head tucked under her arm as she breathed slowly. "You alright?"

"Better than being kicked through a wall." She laughed pitifully, ignoring the fact that he seemed to have given her a new nickname. "Let's go.."

"Put on the suit." Steve grunted out hauling Tony up from the ground. "Come on Jenn."

"Right!" Tony and Jennifer replied in unison as they stumbled their way out of the smokey lab.