Revised Chapter posted 11/20/16
Steve was first to barge into the debriefing room. The automatic doors almost had no time to open as the super soldier stormed through them with an angry scowl set across his face.
"Mind telling us just what the hell you were thinking sending her out there like that?" He demanded of Fury. The man in question stood with his arms folded across his chest like always. Steve briefly wondered if he had ever seen the man sitting down.
"Captain Rogers, I don't see how that's any of your concern."
"This is my team and they're my responsibility. I don't appreciate you almost getting one of them killed."
"From what I saw she saved your asses," Fury shot back. "And let's not forget that it's my team, not yours. I put you all together and I can break you all up. And she is not an Avenger. Understood?"
Steve's jaw set as he bit back a sour comment. He didn't nod and instead slammed his fists down on the table before taking a seat. He stared angrily at the smooth, glossy surface of the table and glared at his reflection. It was his team, damnit, and she was just as much a part of it now as any other member…
Thor came in next, "I do not understand what type of Midgardian test that was, nor did I appreciate it either."
Fury said nothing as the rest of the team trickled in. Stella had a firm grip on the back of Tony's shirt as the pair entered the room.
"I believe that I do not like flying," she whispered uneasily.
Tony rolled his eyes, "Seriously guys, is my flying that bad?"
Clint diverted his eyes and smirked, pretending he didn't hear the billionaire, and instead turned to inspecting the work being done on his leg. He refused to not be present during this debriefing, absolutely sure he was going witness some sort of shit show (and he wasn't about to miss that), so he sat with a rather disgruntled looking doctor at the far end of the room.
"Hold still," the doctor murmured, but he was pretty sure Clint had stopped listening to him well before they'd settled him down in the room.
Stella looked around briefly, "Where is Bruce?"
"Dr. Banner will regroup with us later," Natasha told her softly. "He needs time to cool down."
"Oh," the pink haired woman said. And then with a furrowed brow she asked, "What does 'cool down' mean?"
"Remember how Bruce was that huge green thing?" Tony asked and Stella nodded quickly. "Well, he needs time to deflate back into the little bashful scientist we all know and love. Plus," Tony smirked down at her, "the Hulk doesn't exactly fit in one of these chairs."
Stella nodded and smiled, satisfied with his answer, before sitting down in a chair herself. She looked down at the table and saw her reflection. Her wild, pink hair was stuck with leaves and debris from being tossed around while fighting Molecule Man and her face was smudged with dirt. Her eyes snapped over to Natasha, who was the picture of perfection, and Stella quickly starting removing the leaves and attempting to wipe off the dirt from her cheeks. She stopped her failed attempts at primping when she noticed Steve's reflection right next to hers. He was still angrily staring at the table.
"Steve?" Stella asked quietly. She watched as his reflection's eyes met those of her own reflection. "You are sad."
He looked over and his face softened. Just as he was about to answer her Fury decided to start talking.
"I had a hunch," Tony rolled his eyes at this, "that the source of Molecule Man's power was something akin to what Stella is made out of."
Stella fidgeted in her seat. She was still uncomfortable with Fury constantly telling her she was not like the others.
"I wanted to see if my theory was correct. It was. While you guys were getting your asses mercilessly handed to you by an ex lab rat, S.H.I.E.L.D agents did a sweep of Acme Atomics Corporation over in Brooklyn. It came to my attention that Owen may have been involved in the explosion that happened." Fury put his hands on the table and leaned forward, "He was."
"How did they know that?" Clint asked. The doctor tending to his leg scowled at him when he moved. "Was there video?"
"No," Fury shook his head, "but an employee said that the last time he had seen Owen was in the stock room. Apparently, Owen went to the basement for some new slides and never came back. We found this down there."
Fury pointed a remote at the giant monitor at the head of the table and a picture of a particle generator popped up. Tony stood and walked over to get a closer look. He rubbed his beard in thought and turned back to Fury.
"This thing is huge. There's no way- why was this down there?"
Fury pursed his lips, "Apparently Acme Corp. was experimenting with a super particle before they turned all of their focus onto nuclear energy. My guess is that the super particle kept giving them dead ends or was extremely dangerous so they decided to scrap the project."
"Because nuclear energy is always safe," Natasha mumbled and rolled her eyes. She was Russian. She knew a thing or two about nuclear explosions.
"And we think Reece somehow turned it on and was blasted with the stuff?" Tony referred back to the generator.
"Exactly," Fury nodded. "I had some S.H.I.E.L.D techs look at the generator and they found this inside."
He clicked the remote again and another picture popped up. The interior of the generator was streaked with a brilliant blue glow. The marks looked like jagged tiger stripes as they shimmered with power. Thor stood up from his chair.
"The Tesseract!" He said while looking over to Stella. She frowned and looked down to her folded hands nestled on her lap. What was a Tesseract?
"Thor's right," Steve said, finally relinquishing his super glare on his reflection. "That's the Cube for sure."
"The Tesseract is safe in the relic room of Asgard," Thor said, still standing. "So why does a, what did you call it? A nuclear company have a piece of it?"
"They've had it," Fury told the god. "For a long time now, actually. Did you know that the Tesseract that is now on your home planet hasn't been the first of its kind?"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
"Are you saying there's more than one Cube running about?" Clint's voice cut in and his eyes were hard. Out of everyone in the room, he had one of the highest reasons to hate anything associated with the Cube. The doctor finally snipped off the last stitch to his wound and began to wrap it up properly. He didn't exactly want to be around the archer when that look was in his eyes.
"Precisely, Agent Barton. Although they have all fizzled out after a while. The one that your father now holds, Thor, is the only one we know of that hasn't lost its power."
"Where do they come from?" Tony asked. Then he shrugged, "I want one. Why don't we get to have one? Not fair. Somebody look into that. Wish-list it."
Fury stared hard at the Avengers, debating whether or not he should tell them his theory. Steve was staring at him so intensely that Fury thought the captain might have an aneurism. Thor did not look too far behind. Oh what the hell, he thought. Can't get any worse.
"We think the Cubes come from space."
"Not surprising," Natasha said. "Thor is from space."
"Asgard," Thor replied, a tad offended. "I am from Asgard, my lady."
"Yeah, um, that's in space." Clint rolled his eyes.
"What I mean is that we think the Tesseract is being put here from another planet."
"Not more aliens," a groan sounded from the doorway. Bruce Banner walked in looking all the world like someone who was just run over by a large vehicle and then drug through the mud. He was cleaning his glasses off with his shirt but to no avail. His shirt was beyond dirty – what was left of it, anyway.
"Bruce! You are safe!" Stella gave him a thousand-watt smile from her seat.
"Yeah, Stell. I'm safe," he smiled shyly over at her as she continued to beam.
"You, my friend, could use a shower," Tony joked. "Nice to see you're alive and didn't have to steal a motorcycle this time."
"You kidding me? I parked it out front," he joked back in his soft voice. The two geniuses laughed and Stella kept smiling, happy that everyone was back together.
"So aliens, huh?" Bruce said after giving up on trying to clean his glasses. He tucked them into his shirt pocket instead.
Fury continued, "The Cubes have all shown up during times of intense crisis. Pivotal moments of history, like World War II," he looked to Steve. "We think that it can't be a coincidence. Someone had to put them here."
"But who?" Tony asked. "Who wants to meddle in our Earth business? Why can't they mess with the Chitauri? They were much more interesting." He paused and added, "And scarier."
"Well it doesn't matter now," Fury began to change the subject. "They're not attacking so we shouldn't be asking questions. Our main concern is that we now have a super charged cosmic criminal on our hands."
"And only one sure fire way to stop him," Natasha added solemnly while looking at Stella.
The pink haired woman blinked and pointed at herself, "Me?"
"You managed to land a blow on Molecule Man today," Fury reminded her. "You might be our only hope."
"That's why you sent her out there?!" Steve was fuming again. "On a hunch?!"
"We ran tests when we first brought her in, Captain. I wouldn't have sent her out there if I didn't think she could have helped," Fury defended his choices.
"What you think and what she could have done are two different things," Steve argued back. "What if she was afraid? What if she hurt one of us again? What if she hurt herself?!"
"I would never hurt one of you again," Stella blurted quickly, her eyes beginning to glisten as she remembered the way Steve looked after she had blasted him through the walls.
"Look what you've done," Tony snapped quietly. "You're making her cry. Nice going."
"I'm sorry, Stella," Steve apologized quietly to her. "I know you wouldn't want to intentionally hurt one of us."
"But I could," Stella looked down at her hands. "I do not know how to..." She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, "I could."
"She can't control herself," Bruce told them. "She's afraid of losing control." Then he whispered to himself, "Like me."
Bruce knew that Stella had heard him, but she chose to say nothing. She continued to stare down at her hands, wondering how so much pain could come from such small things. They were so slender and tiny. How could they be so horrible and deadly?
"Then we teach her how," Fury said. "I need whatever forces I can muster to go against Owen Reece. He's powerful and dangerous and needs to be stopped sooner rather than later if that's not too much to ask."
"He's self-doubting, too," Tony added. "I saw it in his eyes, you know, before he turned cold again and threw me into a tree which, by the way, does hurt even in a giant iron suit."
"Then we use that doubt against him," Steve said. "Anything associated with the cube is never good." His eyes shifted to Stella who by now had sunken even further in her seat, "Except for you, Stell."
Stella looked down at the table again and examined her face. Her porcelain skin was smooth even under the dusting of dirt that was smudged on her face. Her eyes held sadness and confusion. Who was she? Why her? Why these people? She did not look like Owen Reece. She was no monster. What Steve said though, that couldn't be unheard. Anything associated with the cube is never good. Perhaps Owen had been right.
She rose from her seat abruptly and left the room. Thor had seen her eyes, right before she left, and had known the look all too well: someone finding out how dangerous he or she really was. He swiftly exited the room after her, leaving the rest of the team to stare after them in silence. Steve put his head in his hands.
"Stella! Please wait, star woman. I would have words with you," Thor called to her gently.
Stella stopped walking and turned to him, her silver eyes beginning to glisten again, "I am lost."
Thor caught up with her and the pair began to walk again. He asked carefully, "Lost in the tower or lost in life?"
Stella's eyes looked from under her eyelids at the walls encasing them, "Both."
"Well, it is a good thing then that you are never truly alone in Stark Tower," Thor told her with a small smile. He then held up one finger, "Or in life."
They rounded a corner and Stella said meekly, "I am unlike the rest of you."
"Well of course you are not like us, friend Stella! You are unique. Captain Rogers is unlike me and I am unlike him. The same with Hawkeye and the Man of you see? We are all our own person."
"Molecule Man told me-"
"Do not listen to that fiend, Stella. He is trying to put lies in your head," Thor's tone was filled with bitterness and a twinge of heartache. "He is different and he cannot cope with it. He does not understand that there are people willing to help him."
Stella put a finger to her lips in thought. She had a feeling that Thor was no longer talking about Owen. They stepped onto the lift and Thor unconsciously pressed a button.
"You think yourself not worthy to be with us?"
Stella shook her head, looking down at her feet, "I could hurt you."
"Ah, but you will not," Thor said with a slight smile. He held his hands in front of his torso and bounced once on his feet, "I know that you will not."
"How?" Her eyes were wide and curious, still laced with a longing to understand who she was.
Thor gave her a warm smile and brought his hand over to her chest. He gently tapped it with his index finger and nodded, "Because what is in there is what separates you from the people who do harm. You are no villain, star woman. I can assure you of that."
The elevator doors opened and Thor exited. Stella was so deep in thought that she barely made it through the doors before they closed again. She looked back at them, still amazed by the strange traveling contraption, and hurried to catch up with the Asgardian. They made it back to the Avengers' quarters and Thor turned to her.
"My brother was much like you," he said sadly. "Confused and afraid. He felt that he belonged nowhere and he rebelled against all who loved him. He hurt all who loved him. I want you to know that there are people who care about you. Last time, he knew too late." His eyes trailed off and he said sadly, "I do not care about your origin of birth or what you look like." His eyes locked onto hers, "You are now my friend, Stella, and I will be there for you until the very end. I swear it to you."
Stella's eyes watered and she smiled at the large, blond god in front of her. With a sniffle she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his middle. Thor laughed heartily and returned the hug.
"Now," he said as he pulled her away and held her at arms length, "Stark has introduced me to these wonderful Midgardian things called 'movies'. They are moving pictures! I can not explain how they get this way, but my father has books that were enchanted in much the same way. I do believe that you will enjoy them. Come! Let us watch one."
The rest of the Avengers filed in a while later. All were annoyed by Fury's secrecy and the way that he seemed to have no regard for Stella's wellbeing. Steve was especially upset because he knew that he had been the one to cause the pink haired woman to flee the debriefing room in sadness. So, when he walked in behind the rest of the team and heard her lighthearted laugh sounding from the living room area, he was pleasantly surprised. A small smile instantly came to his lips.
"What's this?" Tony held his arms out. "Movie night and I wasn't invited? After all I did for you, Supernova," he said jokingly.
Stella peeked her head out from over the couch and grinned, "Join us! Thor made these oddly shaped treats."
She held up a bowl filled with popcorn and Clint chuckled, limping over to the couch and taking a few for himself, "That's called popcorn, Stell. I'm surprised they came out so well." He whispered loudly to her, "Last time Thor made popcorn he burned it."
The god huffed, "Midgardian heating devices are silly. I do not like the so called 'microwave'." He grumbled more about how there was nothing "micro" about it.
"What are you watching?" Natasha asked as she sauntered over to the couch after starting the kettle for some tea.
"The comedic tribulations of a boy named Ferris Bueller," Thor answered.
"I've never seen this," the female assassin replied, mildly interested.
"Oh, it is quite humorous, Natasha. He and his friends have decided not to attend school for the day and are running about the city of Chicago."
"Huh," she apparently decided she'd give the movie a chance as she climbed over the back of the couch and sat at the far end.
Clint sat on the floor in front of Stella, mindful of his mending leg, and she handed the bowl of popcorn down to him. He smiled in thanks and munched away with his eyes glued to the screen. Tony shrugged to himself and sat down next to Thor, pulling his ankle up to rest on the knee of his other leg.
He snapped his fingers at Clint, "Hey, pass that popcorn, would ya? Is there butter on this? Pepper would kill me but hey, butter is the way to go."
"I do not think the pepper or the salt will be mad, Tony," Stella said over to him.
Tony chuckled, thoroughly amused at her child-like naivety, "No, doll, Pepper is my girlfriend. Her first name is Virginia but we just call her Pepper."
"And what is a girlfriend?"
"A…friend…that is a…girl?"
Stella looked at Tony closely, "So Natasha and I are your girlfriends as well?"
Tony almost choked on his popcorn as Natasha quickly corrected Stella.
"Oh no, no way, Stell. A girlfriend is someone you are romantically involved with."
"Ro-romantically involved?" Stella tested the words on her tongue as she did with every new phrase she learned. "I do not understand."
Natasha sighed, but not in exasperation, more so in acceptance, "We will have to watch more movies then."
"You'll understand when you're older, kid," Tony patted her head again and Stella grumbled something unintelligible.
Bruce walked over just then.
"So I am not Bruce's girlfriend either?" Stella asked to clarify.
Bruce's eyes went impossibly wide and he seemed to choke on air, "Uhhhhh?"
Tony barked out a laugh and even Clint had to grin at Bruce's face. "Oh man," Tony patted his own stomach, "I love this. No, Stell, you're not. But, hey, who knows. He is a handsome devil, innit he?"
Stella merely blinked at him, causing Tony to erupt into more laughter.
Bruce looked down at himself before sighing, "I'm going to go change."
Stella looked up at him, "Will you come back?"
He put his hands in his pockets and nodded with shrugged shoulders, "Yeah, I'll come back."
Stella beamed and turned back to the screen, her knees pulled up to her chest and a look of wonder on her face. Bruce smiled to himself. He couldn't say no to that face.
Steve watched him go and looked down at himself. He was still wearing his uniform, so he might as well go change as well. Stella probably didn't want anything to do with him after what he had said, anyway. He quietly made his way to the stairs.
"Steve!" Stella called. "You will come back too?"
He smiled to himself, one hand on the railing, "I'll come back, Stell."
"Good," she nodded contentedly before stealing a piece of popcorn from the bowl on Tony's lap.
A few minutes later Bruce and Steve rejoined the group. Stella patted the seat next to her and Bruce blushed as he sat down. Tony smirked over at him as he popped another piece of popcorn into his mouth. Natasha smiled down into her steaming mug of tea as she curled against the arm of the couch. Steve sat down next to her and folded his hands neatly in his lap. Movies had sure come a long way...
Stella smiled to herself as Thor's words replayed over in her head. She looked down the couch and rested her head on her knees. Steve looked over at her and she smiled, trying to show that she was not angry at him for what he had said earlier. He smiled back and she was content. The Avengers continued to watch the events of Ferris Bueller's life unfold in front of them and Stella smiled to herself. She had people here for her who cared. She would not turn into Owen Reece.
She would not turn into a monster.
Stella turned her attention back on the screen as Ferris' friend Cameron spoke.
"I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I'm going to take a stand. I'm going to defend it. Right or wrong, I'm going to defend it."
Stella nodded to herself. She would not turn into a monster.
A/N: :''''') I just love team bonding moments. I'm a sucker for them. And also picturing Thor angry with a microwave just tickles me pink. He's such a heroic teddy bear. I want to shield him from people who think he's just this big dumb brute and also maybe possibly have him bench press me at the same time...
Anyway.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always, your continued support fills me with so much warmth! Much love and stay tuned! xx
