"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury said walking into the lab with me just behind.
"Ah, I've kinda been wondering the same thing about you." Stark said.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury replied.
"We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit we'll have the location within half a mile." Banner said.
"We'll help you get the cube back; no mess, no fuss. What is phase 2?" Stark said.
"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube…" Cpt. stated entering with a gun and putting it on a table, but was then interrupted by Kilah.
"to build weapons of mass defence." Kilah finished. I tried to signal for her to stop.
"Rogers, we gather everything relating to the Tesseract, this does not mean…" Fury started.
"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?" Stark said, turning a screen to show the rest of the room the evidence. Next to an image of a missile there was an open file, a file I found contained Kilah's name and rank.
"I warned you that you might not like what you find." I said to Stark.
"Hi daddy! When'd you get here? Better yet, where is here? Is this Oz?" Kilah said, backing out of the room.
"I had nothing to do with…" I started.
"You liar!" Kilah shouted, around the bench in seconds.
"…never mind, I did." I finished.
"You're in as deep as me." Kilah stated, blocking out the other arguments going on around us.
"Yeah, but I didn't lie to my dad." I retorted, moving forward. Banner was now caught in between us.
"You don't know who he is!"
I narrowed my eyes at her. "Thanks for the reminder." I half growled. "At least I can remember the stuff I need to lie about."
"Because of him" Fury said, indicating Thor who must have walked in with BW while we had been arguing. Both me and Kilah fell silent (for once).
"Me?" Thor asked.
"Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out gunned." Fury explained.
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor argued.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Kenna, Fury and I said at the same time.
"And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people that can't be matched, that can't be controlled." Fury continued.
"Like you control the cube." Steve commented.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. it is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor said.
"A higher form?" Cpt. questioned.
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with…" Fury retorted.
"Nuclear detergent, cause that always calms everything right down." Stark added.
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury asked.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck deep in it." Steve commented.
"Hold on, how is this now about me?" Tony asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor said.
"Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked, rounding on Thor.
"Technically we would if we could." Kilah muttered.
"SHIELD monitors potential threats." Black Widow said.
"Hang on, how can I be a threat when you only just found out who I am?" I asked.
"We all are" BW said, answering both me and Banner.
"Hey, I'm not threat!" Kilah exclaimed.
"Some of us here know your past." I said. Kilah glared at and then went over and hugged her father, probably blanking everything.
"You speak of control and yet cause chaos." Thor said, making me once again listen to what was being said.
"That's his M.O. isn't it? You think we're a team, no; we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Banner said, everyone else stopping.
"Very true." I muttered.
"You need to step away." Fury said calmly.
"Why shouldn't he let off a little steam?" Stark asked.
"You know damn well why." Cpt. said, shoving Stark.
"Don't touch my daddy" Kilah said.
"Back off" Cpt. said.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Stark said.
"Oh yeah! Big man in a suit of armour, take that away and what are you?" Cpt. asked.
"A genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." The two Starks said in unison.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. 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." Cpt. said.
"Hypocrite" I muttered
"I think I'd just cut the wire." Stark replied.
"Always a way out." Cpt. scoffed. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be the hero."
"You try too hard to be a hero." I muttered again.
"Not a threat. Arc reactor that can fit I his chest, iron man and machine genius. Who's not a threat?" Kilah said.
"Unlike you; you're a laboratory experiment. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Stark retorted.
"Put on your suit and we'll find out." Cpt. challenged. "Let's go a few rounds."
"You people are so petty; and tiny." Thor laughed.
Standing behind Banner, I could see that the sceptre had started to glow slightly brighter. This told me that Loki probably had something to do with the others over reactions (but they were not behaving completely out of character, I might add). I had known this was coming, had even called Loki out on it, and yet here I was just letting it happen. I had to try and think of a way of calming the situation down.
"Come on now, let's just go sit down and work this out." I said, hoping to be heard over everything going on. "We're on the same team, remember?"
"Yeah, this is a team." Banner muttered.
"Agent Romanoff, would you please escort Dr Banner…" Fury started.
"To where? You rented my room." Banner said.
"The cell was just in case…" Fury started again, only to once again be interrupted.
"You needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried." Banner said. Everyone looked at him at that. "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people and I was good until you dragged me back to this freak show.
"You wanna know my secret agent Romanoff, you wanna know how I stay calm." Banner said. During this, Banner had picked up the sceptre. Noticing, I summoned by bow. The others seemed to have got the hint as I saw Kilah draw one Sais, while Fury and BW moved their hands to their weapons.
"Dr Banner, put down the sceptre." Steve said calmly, although I could see that he was just as tense as the rest of us. Banner looked at his left hand and seemed to notice for the first time what he was holding.
Beep, beep
Everyone turned around to face the computer that had just beeped at us. "Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." Banner said, walking over to a computer with BW in toe.
"You've located the Tesseract." Thor half stated, half questioned.
"I can get there faster." Stark said, making for the door.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard." Thor said, obviously meaning to go and get it himself.
"You're not going alone." Cpt. said, stopped Stark from leaving.
"And you're going to stop me?" Stark questioned, pushing Steve off him.
"Put on the suit let's find out." Cpt. challenged.
"I'm not scared of you, old man."
"Put on the suit."
"Oh my god." I heard Banner mutter from by the computer, but I didn't have time to wonder what he meant.
BANG!