I only own my OCs, enjoy and review? ~A Keeper
"And my head told my heart: 'let love grow,' but my heart told my head: 'this time no, this time no.'" Winter Winds, Mumford and Sons
"And then to be reminded what real power is." Jamie locked eyes with the man in the footage and felt a shiver run down her spine. She glanced up and caught Steve's eyes, a brief look of worry. He offered a smile of comfort and turned off the video.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?"
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked, taking Jamie's hand under the table. She couldn't say how much that meant to her with words, but she was deeply grateful for his comfort. It seemed like Steve was the only one, aside from the girls, who knew how to comfort and support someone who was in the middle of freaking out.
"He has an army called the chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any known world. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." The burly man said.
"An army," Steve muttered. "From outer space."
"Peachy."
Jamie and Steve were sitting beside each other at the table while Danielle was opposite them. Thor was standing to the right of Danielle and Alex was standing in the corner, silent as ever. Chelsea was sitting beside Jamie and Dr. Banner was standing behind her, a hand on her chair.
"So he's building another portal," Banner said. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
"Selvig?" Thor questioned.
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend,"
"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Nat explained. "Along with one of our own."
Chelsea tried hard not to snort. Nat had been hinting at her depression not at all subtly since news came about Barton's betrayal and it was getting rather annoying. She supposed it was also because of the small detail that Barton had been ogling at her when she first began to work for SHIELD, which made Nat jealous and strained their relationship. She had a feeling that if she was ever in trouble, the Russian wouldn't hesitate to call it an accident and watch what happens.
"I want to know why Loki let us take him." Steve said. "He's not leading an army from here." Jamie went to agree with him, when Banner spoke up.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki, that guy's brain is full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." Chelsea nodded.
"Have care with your words," Danielle interrupted, staring blankly outside the dark window.
"Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother." Thor sided with Danielle.
"He killed eighty people in two days." Nat added, much to many people's annoyance.
"He's adopted."
"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce said.
"Iridium," Chelsea picked up on his thought. "What do they need iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony Stark said, entering the room with Coulson who smiled at Alex. She returned a brilliant smile. The billionaire turned to Coulson. "I'm just saying, pick a weekend, I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."
Coulson went to stand by Alex whose face fell and resumed an emotionless stance. Why was the cellist such a big deal? Why had Phil not told her about them, but had told Stark and Pepper? They had been friends for as long as she worked at SHIELD, didn't that mean anything to him?
"Which means it can stay open as long and as wide as Loki wants." Chelsea deduced.
"That is correct, Dr. Marx, right?" He looked out over the bridge as he strolled around the main control area. She rolled her eyes. So much for a secret identity. Tony proceeded to say, "Raise the mizzenmast, jib the topsails." The SHIELD agents who were working on the monitors below looked up at him as though to wordlessly say, 'no.' "That man is playing galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice but we did. How does Fury even see these?" He gestured to the mechanisms around him after removing some of the tension.
"He turns," Danielle replied dully, as though it was obvious.
"Sounds exhausting," He hit the bridge once, then bounced through the settings. "The rest of the raw materials should be easy to find. The only major missing component is a power source of a high-energy density. Something to kick start the cube."
Tony spied Bruce and his eyes light up, he came over to the scientist and shook his hand, "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled and I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into a giant green raging monster."
"Thanks."
"He is only here to locate the cube," Director Fury said. "I was hoping you might join him and Dr. Marx."
"I would start with that stick of his," Steve suggested. "It might be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
Danielle heard Jamie whisper to Alex, "That's what she said." She couldn't help the corners of her mouth curving into a smile ever so slightly.
"I would like to know," Fury said, eyeing the girls with concealed amusement. "How Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his own personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys?" Thor asked. "I do not understand-"
"I do!" Steve exclaimed happily. He looked around to find Jamie smiling comfortingly. She cast a look to Danielle, Chelsea and Alex with pleading eyes asking, 'can I keep him?' "I...I understood that reference."
Tony promptly ignored him and said, "Shall we play, Doctor...s?"
Dr. Chelsea Marx ran a hand over her face and stifled a yawn. "The gamma readings on the scepter are consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract." She told Banner, placing her glasses back on her nose.
"But it's going to take weeks to process," Tony added, toying with some device. "If we bypass their mainframe, and direct route to the Homer Cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."
"All I packed was a toothbrush," Banner murmured, then looked to Chelsea. "Dr. Marx, are you alright? Maybe you should take the hour off and get some sleep."
"I'm fine, I assure you. I'm a medical doctor as much as I am a scientist, Dr. Banner."
"I thought I told you to call me Bruce,"
"You two are adorable," Tony interrupted. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower some time, both of you. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candyland." She glared at him, which made him flinch and made her grateful that Danielle had taught her what had been so lovingly dubbed, 'The Bat-Glare.'
"Thanks," He said, bringing up a chair and easing Chelsea into it by the table so she could continue. "But last time I was in New York, I kind of...broke Harlem."
"Well, I promise a stress-free environment," Says Tony Stark. "No tension, no surprise," He stabbed Bruce with a stupid pokey object just as Steve and Jamie walked in, simultaneously shouting. "Hey!" Chelsea was wide awake now and promptly whacked Stark on the back of his head with a book.
"Nothing?" Stark asked, sounding almost disappointed as he rubbed his throbbing head.
"Are you nuts?!" Jamie exclaimed.
"Jury's out," Tony said nonchalantly. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, calm, yet clearly upset.
"Funny things are."
"How is threatening the safety of everyone on this ship funny?" Jamie asked. "Oh, no offense, Doctor."
"It's alright, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce smiled reassuringly at Chelsea who was holding the book poised to strike again. She lowered it and let it fall to the table, returning to her work with a frustrated and annoyed expression.
"You're tiptoeing, big man, you need to strut."
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve said. Tony went to his bag and took out a silver bag of blueberries which he began to eat out of. Chelsea would have told him to put it away, but in all honesty, she just wanted to get their job done with so she can spend a nice night asleep.
Jamie whispered to Chelsea, "He needs to shut his cake hole, too. Jerk."
"Watching Supernatural, are we?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"Do you think I'm not?" He questioned. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables," Tony said. Bruce winced, but returned to his work.
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve cast a glance to Jamie, but she didn't respond.
"He's a spy," Tony said, then emphasized. "Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him, too, isn't it?"
"Uh..." Banner stammered. He shook his head and gestured to the scepter. "I just want to finish my work here and..."
"Bruce?"
He looked up and met Chelsea's pleading eyes, then sighed, "'A warm light for all mankind,' Loki's jab about the cube. I think he intended that for you." He gestured to Tony who offered him a blueberry which he accepted. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly-" Jamie jabbed him. "Building in New York?"
"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what? A year?"
"It's just a prototype." He turned to Steve to brag. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at?"
If Steve weren't in there, Jamie would've ran out ages ago. Though what they said was interesting at some points, it was also boring at others and usually ended (or began) with an argument.
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" He glanced towards Chelsea who was looking at her feet in thought.
"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."
Jamie shook her head, "You are incredibly lucky, Mr. Stark, that the Legends are currently forming their own hypotheses against SHIELD. If not, you can be darn well sure that we'd make you disappear."
"Gladly noted," He replied.
"I'm sorry, did you say-"
"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." Stark interrupted. "In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has tried to hide. Blueberry?"
"Yet you're confused as to why they don't want you around,"
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."
"Gee, thanks."
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve replied firmly. "This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."
"Following's not really my style."
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Jamie snorted; Steve might have been out of it for a few decades, but he could certainly burn Tony Stark's arse any day of the week.
"Of the people in this room, who is A, wearing a spangly outfit and B, not of use?"
She glared daggers at him.
"Steve, tell me this doesn't smell funky to you," Chelsea said. Jamie looked to her friend and smiled. She agreed with Chelsea and the others, now she just had to get Steve to see it, too.
He thought a moment, then left, hurt and angry. "Just find the cube." As Jamie followed, she whacked Tony and stole his blueberry bag.
"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?"
"Oh, can it, Tony, you're just upset because he burned your ego." Chelsea snapped.
Bruce eyed her, unsure as to if he should smile at the hilarity of the situation or cringe at her angry side. "Well, the guy's not wrong," He said as he returned to his work. He kept an eye on Chelsea who became silent and every now and again rubbed her eyes or stretched. "He does have the jump on us."
"What he's got is an acme dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face and I'm going to be there when it does." Tony said with glee.
"And I'll read all about it."
Tony caught Bruce's glance towards Chelsea who had found a comfortable position in her swivel chair and fallen asleep. He smiled deviously, "Uh-huh, or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us."
Bruce laughed, "You see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed; like a nerve. It's a nightmare."
"I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This," He tapped the arc reactor in his chest. "Stops it." He nodded to Chelsea. "What do you suppose is eating at her? Or all the Legends for that matter? They got dirt, too, and I plan on finding all about it when the decryption is done. I'd show you if you wanted a peek-"
"It wouldn't be right," He was gruff and firm. Nothing was going to change his mind.
Tony shrugged and brushed away the tabs on the screen so he could talk to Banner face to face. "I read all about your 'accident,' that much gamma radiation should have killed you."
"So you're saying the Hulk..." He sighed and looked away. "The other guy saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved me for what?"
Tony stole a quick glance at Chelsea, but Banner caught it. "I guess we'll find out."