I'm back! I am so sorry for my EXTREMELY long absence. My muse disappeared and I wasn't able to work with the movie for a long time, but I'm finally back! I will try to make my updates a little more timely, but I'm sorry if I do not succeed since I will be starting 12th grade on Monday. Yikes! Anyway, enjoy this next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers. I only own Diana.

Diana: You don't own me either! How many times do I have to tell you that!

Chapter Twelve

Technical Discussions and Sibling Tiffs

Diana was correct, Tony was mad at her for sneaking down to the cell and talking to Loki. He griped at her about how dangerous and unwise it was the entire way back up to the main level where they met Coleson. Coleson really was a trooper. He managed to pull Tony's attention away from his ranting at Diana by telling him about the cellist he had been dating and who had moved back to Portland.

They arived in the converence room in time to hear Bruce ask, "Irridium. What do they need the Irridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony answered as they entered the room. He turned briefly back to Phil to say, "I'm just saying pick a weekend, I'll fly you to Portland. Keep the love alive." Phil nodded in appreciation, but quickly directed Tony's attention back to the room. Tony seamlessly returned to his explaination. "Means, the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

As he passed Thor, he paused again to say, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." Once again, he slipped back to the previous conversation, "Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

As Diana settled on leaning on the back of a chair near Bruce, Tony approached a set of displays and began calling out orders to the crew below him. "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." Everyone below actually paused their work to look at him. Tony quickly pointed off to the right. "That man is playing Galaga. Thought we didn't notice, but we did."

Tony looked back at the displays and briefly covered one eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Maria Hill replied.

"Sounds exhausting.

"Tony!" Diana called in her get-back-on-track-RIGHT-NOW-or-else voice.

After a quick keep-your-hair-on look, Tony began pushing buttons on the consoles and continued talking. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only thing he probably still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube." Diana glared at him. As he had turned back to them, Tony had surreptitiously planted a bug on one of the consoles. Diana knew what that meant: he was having JARVIS hack into the SHIELD database. Tony only briefly glanced at her before turning his attention to Agent Hill who was speaking.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night," Tony replied casually. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"No, but you were probably one of the only ones who actually understood it," Diana replied snidely.

"Does Loki need any particular type of power source?" Steve asked to get the conversation back on track.

"He'd have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce said.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony pointed out.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce replied.

"Finally, someone who speaks English," Tony commented and he strolled in Bruce's direction.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked. Diana gave him a reassuring glance to let him know that he wasn't the only one who hadn't understood all of that conversation.

Tony reached out and shook Bruce's hand, "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalelled. And I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Diana casually straightened up, turned and whacked Tony hard on the back of the head with her hand. "OW!" he cried, turning to her indignantly. "What was that for?"

"You know very well what that was for, Mr. Stark." Tony shot her a nervous look. He knew he was in big trouble when she called him Mr. Stark instead of Tony like she usually did.

The sibling tiff was cut short as Fury entered the room. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him."

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve said. "It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"I don't know about that," Fury replied. "But it is powered by the Cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the brightest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked, puzzled. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve exclaimed. "I understood that reference." Diana smiled encouragingly at him. The poor guy was so behind the times. It was good that he had finally found a speech reference that he had actually understood.

Tony ignored him and simply turned to Bruce, "Shall we play, Doctor?" Bruce nodded and gestured in the direction of the lab. Diana headed in Steve's direction to talk to him, but Tony grabbed her arm. "You are coming with us, young lady. You are grounded after that Loki stunt."