A/N: Hi my lovely awesome nerds! I'm back! Firstly, I am so so very sorry that I haven't updated in like years (lol just kidding!) but I've just been so busy! I'm going on camp next week to Queensland, it's my birthday on Monday, I got a new dog, and I'm currently training for my black belt which I'll hopefully get at the end of the year, and just about anything else possible is happening in my life right now. But when I get back from camp in 2 weeks, I'm gonna try my best to update again! Thank you so much to all of my wonderful reviewers! I absolutely love you! And thanks so much to everyone still reading this story! This isn't one of my personal favourites but I decided to upload it anyway to see if anyone would like it. I know that Anastasia is half vampire and all that kerfuffle but I wrote this story 2 years ago and if I had written it now, she wouldn't be! I must've just thought that it'd be cool or something :/ Anyway! On with the story...

Disclaimer: I wish I owned the Avengers, and Disney and Marvel in general! Sadly, I do not. :'(

Chapter 10: Arguments

Anastasia arrived in the lab just as Fury was yelling at Tony, who was sitting on the bench, still working on the monitors with Bruce. "You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury didn't notice her silently standing in the doorway, but Bruce and Tony both glanced at her, no giving her away.

"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," Bruce assured the director, tapping away on the transparent screen before him.

"And you'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss," Tony told Fury distractedly. Something popped up on his screen, and he turned to look at it. "What is Phase 2?"

Anastasia heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Steve walking up behind her. He looked a bit put out, so she moved out of his path, and the captain acknowledged her with a nod of his head. He then proceeded to walk over to the table in the lab and dump some sort of weapon on the silver surface. Fury turned to see what the fuss was, and noticed the younger Romanoff girl standing in the doorway, behind a glaring Steve.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Steve announced. He looked over at Tony. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-" A desperate Fury was cut off by Stark.

"I'm sorry, Nick," he said as he turned the glass monitor so Fury could see. Anastasia took in the nuke plan on the screen and gasped. Tony pretended to be shocked. "What, were you lying?"

Anastasia heard more footsteps behind her, coming from Thor and Natasha, who were making their way towards the entrance of the lab. She let them through before making her own way into the room, settling next to Natasha with her arms crossed tight against her chest.

Steve spoke before Fury had the chance to concoct a suitable reply. "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

Bruce looked over at Natasha. "Did you know about this?"

She ignored his question. "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" she asked, walking over to him as he back away from her.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," he almost spat.

"Loki's manipulating you," Natasha warned him.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce retorted.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce grabbed the corner of the screen that was beside him now, turning it so everyone could see the weapon plan. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury looked slightly defeated, and decided to tell them the truth. "Because of him." He pointed to Thor, shocking most of the room's occupants. Anastasia cocked her head to one side, frowning.

The thunder god looked equally confused. "Me?"

"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, hilarious, outgunned," Fury explained.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

Fury turned to Thor. "But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you control the cube?" Steve proclaimed. Anastasia felt a verbal fight coming on.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor informed them, many emotions crossing his features at once.

"A higher form?" Steve looked appalled.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Fury was losing the fight, and he damn well knew it. Everyone in the room, excluding the two Romanoff sisters, were pitted against him. Anastasia didn't even know whose side her sister was even on. The younger girl knew that Fury should not use the Tesseract to make weapons that could flatten cities, but surely he didn't come up with that idea on his own. Someone must've been giving him orders to do so.

"A nuclear deterrent, 'cause that always calms everything right down." Sarcasm had to be Tony's middle name or something, because he was sure living up to it today.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury levelled Tony with a one-eyed glare.

Anastasia was confused with Steve's next comment; she didn't know whose side he was really on. "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-"

Tony cut him off angrily. "Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted. Well he had one hell of a grudge against Tony Stark.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor commented, throwing in his ten cents.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury growled.

Anastasia blocked the next minute or so of the argument out because Loki's sceptre had started glowing brighter. She wandered over to the table where it was sitting and inspected it. She knew it was very powerful. Powerful enough to possess Clint Barton, who apparently was a master marksman, sniper and brilliant fighter. It just shows what Anastasia knew had to only be the beginning of it's capabilities it such a strong man couldn't fight against it's power.

She thought for a second that maybe the sceptre was making the argument behind her more heated than it would be if it wasn't in the room. Maybe it was making their moods more shifty, which was causing the arguing to take on a whole new level.

The shorter redhead was brought back to the land of the living when she heard the room go silent. "I mean what are we? A team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time bomb."

Anastasia turned to find Bruce standing less than two feet in front of her, his back to her, and everyone else facing them. "You need to step away," Fury told him sternly.

Tony put his hand on Steve's shoulder. "Why should the guy let off a little steam?"

Steve knocked his hand away. "You know damn well why! Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," he said as he turned to face the taller captain.

Steve circled Tony like he was a lion stalking it's prey. "Yeah, big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" He stopped in front of Stark.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Natasha, who had magically ended up next to Thor, raised an eyebrow and cocked her head in hesitant agreement.

Steve snorted, smiling in annoyance. "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've sent 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."

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony replied, holding his ground as an array of emotions passed over his face. Anastasia thought she saw just a flicker of sadness or hurt.

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

"A hero?" Tony raised his eyebrow. "LIke you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Steve wouldn't back down. "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

Anastasia walked over to stand next to Steve as Thor let out a dry laugh. "You people are so petty. And tiny."

Everyone stood stunned for a split second as they processed what strange words Thor just said. Bruce then shook his head. "Yeah, this is a team," he muttered.

Fury turned to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-"

"Where?" Bruce cut him off. "You're renting my room."

Fury tried to reason with him, still desperate to hide some of the truth. "The cell was just-"

"Incase you needed to kill me, but you can! I know! I tried!" Shocked faces al turned to Bruce, forgetting their differences for a moment. "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. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." He was on the verge of losing control. He now held the sceptre in his right hand and had backed all the way back to the table. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Everyone was on guard, ready to fight if they had to. Fury unhooked his gun, Natasha instinctively put her hand on the grip of her own gun, and Anastasia felt the familiar heat of white flames licking at her hands.

"Dr. Banner," Steve started carefully, not wanting to get into a fist-fight with the other guy. "Put down the sceptre." Bruce looked down at his clasped hand in horror.

Suddenly, a beeping noise echoed throughout the lab, breaking the tension and indicating that the tracer had found the Tesseract. "You got it," Fury said.

Bruce huffed as he placed the sceptre down on the table and made his way over to the screen. "Sorry kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked, moving to see the screen. Natasha and Anastasia followed him, the latter looking over Bruce's shoulder.

"I can get there faster," Tony claimed, still going with the whole argument thing. Anastasia rolled her eyes.

Steve was trying to keep the peace between everyone in the room. "Look, all of us-"

Thor cut him off. "The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it."

Stark still turned to leave, but stopped when the super soldier grabbed his wrist. "You're not going alone!"

"You gonna stop me?" Tony hit Steve's hand off his wrist.

"Put on the suit. Let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit," Steve growled.

Anastasia turned back to look at the screen and saw Bruce tense out of the corner of her eye. Oh crap. That didn't look good.

Bruce noticed it at the exact same time. "Oh my God!"

Phew! That definitely took some time to write! Now I should probably go get some dinner for me and the sisters! Review, follow, favourite! REVIEW MOST OF ALL! See you soon!

~ Tigger out xoxo