Bruce took out a gamma radiation scanner and waved it across Loki's scepter. Cecile was fishing around in the drawers, trying to find just a regular notepad and pen. She much rather preferred them to those computer monitors that were still way too complicated for her to use properly.
"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract," Bruce stated, looking at the readings on his monitor.
"I could have told you that," Cecile muttered in French, moving to another set of drawers.
"But it's going to take weeks to process," Bruce finished.
"If we bypass their mainframes to a direct route to the homer cluster we can clock this at around 600 teraflops," Tony stated. Bruce let out a chuckle.
"All i packed was a toothbrush," He said.
"Ya' know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candyland." Tony said, moving across the room to where Bruce was.
"Thanks, but, the last time i was in New York i kind of… broke… Harlem," Bruce stated, logging data.
"Well, i promise a stress free environment, no tension, no surprises," Tony said, poking Bruce with a small, metal rod that let off a small pulse of electricity.
"Ow!" Bruce exclaimed, looking towards Tony.
"Anthony," Cecile warned from across the room. He waved her off.
"Nothin'?" Tony asked Bruce.
"Hey! Are you nuts?" Captain America himself asked, walking into the room, angry. Cecile rubbed her face as Tony said something she didn't quite catch before talking louder to Bruce.
"You really have gotten a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Tony questioned.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, frustrated. Cecile went and stood beside Steve, slipping her hands into her jean pockets and watching the two, waiting to see if she would have to break up an argument.
"Funny things are," Tony responded.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said, reprimanding Tony. Not that dear Anthony was truly listening. "No offence Doc."
"I-It's alright, I wouldn't have come aboard if i couldn't handle pointy things," Bruce said, typing away at his computer, seemingly trying to ignore the two opposing men. Tony chuckled a little bitterly.
"You're tiptoeing, big man, you need to strut," Tony said, directed towards Bruce while walking around the lab table.
"And you need to focus on the problems, Mr. Stark," Steve said, his tone a little harsh.
"You think i'm not?" Tony asked. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now and not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless i have all the variables," Tony stated, grabbing a bag of blueberries before going back to Bruce's side. Steve seemed to mull over Tony's words, and seemed to be trying to answer the questions himself, and coming up with more questions than answers.
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, his voice coated in suspicion.
"He's a spy," Tony stated. "Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony threw a couple blueberries into his mouth. "It's buggin' him too, innit?"
"Uh…" Bruce said nervously, waving his hands around his station."I just wanna finish my work here… and-"
"Doctor," Steve interrupted, causing Bruce to sigh and take his glasses off.
"Phase two..." Cecile muttered under her breath, just loud enough for herself to hear, she remembered Fury mentioning it back before the base imploded. Cecile was still new to this world, and she still wasn't very trusting of the people in it and what their intentions were. Not Fury. Not Tony. Not even Natasha. The only person she remotely trusted was Steve.
"'A warm light for all mankind,' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," Bruce stated. Cecile tuned back in.
"I heard it," Steve said, showing he was listening to Bruce.
"Well, i think that was meant for you," Bruce said, pointing at Tony, who held out the blueberries to him. Bruce took a few before continuing. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark Tower?" Steve asked. "That big, ugly-" Tony gave him an annoyed look. "Building in New York?"
"It's powered by an arc reactor, self sustaining energy source," Bruce continued. "That building will run itself, for what, a year?"
"It's just the prototype," Tony responded, shrugging. "I'm kinda the only name in clean energy right now, is what he's getting at."
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce questioned.
"I could give you a couple reasons," Cecile said quietly in French, just loud enough for Steve to hear, causing his lip to turn up just slightly.
"I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce continued.
"I should probably take a look into that once my encryption program finishes breaking into SHIELD's secure files." Tony said, walking around Bruce to the front of the table while looking at his phone.
"I'm sorry did you say-" Steve started.
"J.A.R.V.I.S has been running it since i hit the bridge," Tony interrupted, Cecile frowned at the name. She had known the actual Jarvis, albeit shortly, she still knew him, and she wondered why Tony's system was named that, she would have to ask him later. "In a few hours i will know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?"
"Yet, you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve stated.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome," Tony retorted.
"I think Loki is trying to wind us up," Steve admitted. "This is a man who is trying to start a war, and if we don't stay focused he may succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."
Tony made a slightly disgusted face before placing more blueberries in his mouth. "Following isn't really my style."
Steve let out a small sigh. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"
"Out of everyone in this room, who is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?" Tony questioned, causing Steve to look slightly more stoic and to clench his jaw. Cecile placed a hand on Steve's arm before shooting a glare at Tony.
"Steve," Bruce stated, causing the man to look over. "Tell me none of this doesn't smell a little funky to you."
Steve looked back at Tony for a moment and said. "Just find the cube," before walking off. Cecile turned to Tony.
"That was a little uncalled for," She spat, before going to follow the man. He was stood outside the door, looking back and forth in the hallway, seeming to be deciding something in his head. "Steve."
He looked at her for a moment before motioning with his head to follow. She did just that.
They walked for awhile down various hallways. Large and small corridors alike. And maybe even broke into a few places. When they finally reached a door that read: SECURE STORAGE 10-C, they stopped.
"Gimme a hand," Steve said, starting to pry the door open. Cecile joined him, both were straining until they heard a pop and Steve slid it open. Both of them looked around the dark hallway before entering the storage room filled with thousands of boxes.
They stepped quietly, noticing a couple agents passing over one of the overhead landings. They waited for a moment until the voices faded. Before Steve jumped up onto the landing above, Cecile right after him.
"I'll take right, you take left?" Cecile suggested quietly.
"Okay, call if you find something," Steve agreed.
Cecile and Steve both searched around, finding countless boxes, filled with old tech, some newer than the others. The more they searched, the more boxes they found, filled with HYDRA paraphernalia. Cecile's ears perked up as she heard Steve's hand hit particularly hard against one of the edges of a container. She was nearby, looking through another box, before sighing. "They can't explain why they have this, Steven."
Steve looked at her, noticing the growing tiredness forming under her eyes. Black and puffy from days without rest. He knew she was in the same boat as he was. Trying to accept the fact that they were in a new world and that everything they had was either barely there or gone. "No."
She was leaning over a box, stray blond tresses hanging in front of her face, her hands gripping the edge so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "I haven't gotten a chance, to talk to you properly since, you know." Cecile said, looking at her wristwatch that read roughly midnight.
"I know, they wouldn't let me see you, said something about a security risk." He stated, watching as she bit her bottom lip.
"It's what the Tesseract did to me," She responded, looking towards him, her eyes flashing that familiar glowing blue. "Honestly, i'm not supposed to be fighting, i'm still recovering from the symptoms." She swallowed. "It's like a drug, and i can't get enough of the power."
"Cecile-"
"I'm fine, just, can't use it."
He didn't look convinced.
"How are you, Steven?" Cecile asked, trying to change the subject. Steve allowed it, not wanting to press her more than he had to. She was the only person who he could trust and he didn't wanna push it.
"That shouldn't be too hard to guess," He said, walking over to her.
"Heard from Fury you went to a cabin for awhile," She said, shifting her eyes towards him.
"Yeah, and you obviously just jumped right in, like usual," He responded, watching as she moved to face him.
"No other way," She said. "After this, though, i think i'll be done, with the whole, 'save the world' business, go to school, learn as much as i possibly can, move on."
"I'm not sure what I'll do." He stated simply with a small shrug. "But i'll support you in whatever you chose, Cara."
"Thank you, Steve, that means a lot," She responded, patting his arm, fingers lingering longer than they should have. "Back to work then?"
"Right," He said, looking back at the HYDRA weapons, a deep frown forming on his face.