Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or any of the characters.
Tony's New Assistant (Part 25: Tony's POV)
Tony frowned as he read over the classified SHIELD files he wasn't supposed to have. (Really, if Fury didn't want him to hack SHIELD files, he shouldn't be hacking JARVIS. It was simply tit for tat.)
The information about Loptr was nice confirmation: so his assistant was an alien god creature. Whatever. A few other personnel files were also deeply curious and would require further attention.
However, what was actively troubling was the weapons research the organization was doing.
He considered briefly trying to keep this information confidential. Then he shrugged, grabbed the images on his screen and spread them out in holographic high definition all around the room. "Hey Loptr! Look at this!"
Loptr didn't say anything but still managed to look super sneaky. It kind of made Tony want to pat him on the head… what a cute little alien god creature!
"So? Do you recognize it? What is it? How does it work? And how can we, say, stop it from working? Well?"
Loptr began to take on the rather beleaguered look that Pepper used to sport sometimes. It was a look that said, "why do I put up with this?" but also "I will definitely continue to put up with this." It was a look that Tony appreciated. Despite the weapons research spread around them, Tony couldn't help but grin in response to that look on Loptr's face.
"So," Loptr says, "I guess you know."
"About you, yeah, yeah, yeah. But not about that." He pointed with extra drama at the glowing blue cube, before making grabby motions. "Tell me!"
Loptr sniffed, but then gave in. "It the Tesseract. It's a power source and a beacon and a doorway and a variety of other things. And weapons based on that technology are certainly possible but generally a bad idea. They invite more trouble than they remove."
"Not like that isn't standard fair for the military." Tony found himself frowning again. "How do we stop it?"
Loptr raised an eyebrow. "Traditionally one does not. My suggestion is wait till someone steals it and then avoid getting it back."
"Not very proactive for a plan of yours." Tony felt compelled to point this out because, well, it wasn't very proactive and it made Tony suspicious.
The smirk that slowly grew on Loptr's face did not set those suspicions to rest. "It won't take very long. There's probably something poking at the other side already."