Once I'm sure the others have left, I circle back to the table in the bridge. Luke's interview is about to start. I refuse to see it as an interrogation. He's still there. It's still him. Something's just… happened. And I'm about to find out what.
"Lucas Mabry. Nineteen years old, born November 3rd, 1993 in Nu'uanu, Hawaii." Agent Coulson's pronunciation is as bad as one might think, which makes me laugh a little.
The corner of Luke's mouth twitches up, but I don't think he's getting a kick out of Coulson's poor Hawaiian accent like I am. "I've made promises. Haven't you?" He sounds as casual as if he's telling Coulson about the latest book he read. Luke doesn't read. Or maybe he does. Not sure anymore.
I'm honestly not even sure what I'm not sure about. Frost creeps up the plastic water bottle in my hand. Someone snatches it away, and I glance up to see Ethan. Next goes my apple, which he takes a huge bite out of. "Famished."
"Screw you."
"Screw you, too."
"You'd understand if you were in my shoes." That's the problem, isn't it? That we aren't. That we have no idea what he's going through.
That I'd do anything to know what he's experienced.
"We're here to talk about you, Mr. Mabry," Agent Coulson reminds, "Why'd you join Loki? What's in it for you?"
"Like I said. I've got promises, ones I can't break."
"Promises? Sure you haven't made a deal with the devil?" The instant the question leaves Coulson's mouth, Luke's gaze travels up into the camera.
"If that's what it takes, then that's what I'll do." He's always been like this. Determined, ready to risk it all. Nothing changes in his eerie ice blue eyes, but for a moment, the cell is deadly silent. He's stopped tapping his fingers against the table. "Had to make good on one of my promises. I think I did something pretty shitty." He leans back, examines his fingernails. On a dare, he went with me to get a manicure once. "At least she's still alive. I think."
I don't hear Ethan calling after me over the blood rushing through my ears. One moment I'm sitting and watching the interrogation feed, the next I'm marching down the hallways. I have no clue where Luke's cell is. I'm just guessing.
Agent Coulson stares as the door slides open. He probably didn't think my ID gave me access here. Too bad it does. "Tell me where they are."
Luke looks up at me and shrugs. "Once they see what I can do, no one will have an ounce of courage to lock me up." He's not talking about Amanda and her unborn child now. "We could do a lot together, you and I."
We talked about this. Luke would wait for me to graduate, and then he, Ethan and I would find a place. Live together. Take turns babysitting my nephew. Life would be good.
"You aren't Luke Mabry."
"Oh, but I-"
My thighs bump against the cold metal table. His eyes track mine. "You're a shell of who he is, someone using his physical body to do monstrous things." My finger shakes as I raise it into his face. "I want my best friend back. He's in there somewhere, fighting you."
"Maybe you're right." No way he's agreeing. "I'm not Luke. I'm stronger than he ever was."
"Don't lie to yourself."
"Don't be so quick to take these peoples' words as truth."
In a lot of ways, this is exactly how we used to banter. Quick remarks back and forth, hardly letting the other breathe. Nothing could've ever prepared me for it turning out like this. I don't realize I'm crying until I taste salt when I go to speak again.
"How'd you end up here, Luke? Did Loki threaten you? Did he threaten your parents?"
"No." For the shortest second, through my blurry eyes, I think I see a flicker of emotion in him. "I'd finally found something better."
Circular arguing if I've ever heard of it. I wipe my eyes, shake my head. "I'm done. Sorry for barging in, Coulson."
"Don't mention it." He means that.
Before I reach for the ID scanner, I turn, meet Luke's eyes. "I know you're in there somewhere."
"Heard you went on quite the tangent, Agent Kamashiro." Unlike the other SHIELD agents I've passed by on my way back to the bridge, the Black Widow doesn't give my tear-stained face a long look.
I try to smile, but at the frown of disdain on Agent Romanoff's face, I stop. "Luke's my best friend. I mean to get him back."
"That makes two of us."
"Is Agent Barton a friend?"
"More."
I know what she means from having to explain this exact concept multiple times (often to the same people). Luke and I are best friends, and while it might seem otherwise, that's all it is. From this single word, I know Agent Romanoff and Clint Barton are the same way.
It takes me a minute to realize that we've still been walking, just not towards the bridge. Now, we stand in front of the helicarrier's main lab. "Oh."
"Hope you didn't mind the detour," Agent Romanoff murmurs, smile slipping into a smirk. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. All hands on deck."
Oh. Oh, shit.
"I was wrong, Director," Cap is saying as we step into the room. Ethan and Thor are here, too. (I have to try my best not to stare at the latter. His even being here is a little… weird.) "The world hasn't changed a bit."
"Did you know about this?"
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"
"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." It doesn't take a superspy to know he's about to lose it. So, not good.
"Loki is manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
Director Fury inhales deeply. "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." Doctor Banner reaches for a monitor that hangs from the ceiling, turns it towards us. For the most part, I have no idea what I'm looking at. Pretty sure it's a weapon or something.
Why do we need that? "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Fury doesn't waste a second, raising his hand up towards Thor. "Because of him." Great. Let's go angering both a giant green monster and a literal Asgardian god. Let's!
"Me?"
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"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, that can't be controlled."
I can't help but feel he's talking about me. About Ethan, about Rogers.
Weapons of mass destruction never really jibed well with me, anyway.
"Like you controlled the Cube?"
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?"
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-"
"Forced?" I echo.
"A nuclear deterrent," Stark interrupts. The tips of my ears redden as he gestures to me. "Ladies first."
Ethan shoots me the deadliest stare I've ever seen from him, but I don't think I can back down now. "No offense, Director, but you run the world's most top secret organization, one Tony Stark himself doesn't know much about, and you say you were forced?" I inhale shakily, "My grandparents still tell me stories of where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Thought we'd have learned from that by now." Rogers' gaze drops from me to the tips of his shoes. For what feels like forever, no one says a word.
"The kid has a point. Why would the mighty SHIELD need missiles? Those always calm everything right down, anyway."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" God, men and their inability to shut up.
"Hold on. How is this now about me?"
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
Ethan lets out a groan and buries his head in a hand.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor mutters.
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
Maybe it's because of the way my brother and I were raised, Asian household and everything, but the chatter here seems entirely unnecessary. I lean back against the lab table, listening to the reminders that I'm entirely out of my element.
I miss my friends back home. Hell, I miss sitting in Marine Biology looking through microscopes at different types of algae. I miss my free period where I'd put my head down and sleep for an hour, which is what I wish I could do now.
I miss my parents. I miss waking up to someone rummaging through the kitchen, pots and pans clinking together as my dad cooks breakfast-
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor's oddly beautiful remark jolts me back to reality.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Doctor Banner's immediate reply keeps the arguments from starting anew. (Thank god.) "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."
"You need to step away." Listening to our literal boss might help things here. I hope Banner realizes that.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"
My jaw drops. Ethan mutters something that sounds an awful lot like a string of Japanese curse words.
"You know damn well why. Back off!"
"I'm starting to want you to make me."
Why can't we stop arguing for just one freaking second? "Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
As always, Rogers is right. Stark needs his tech to do what people like Luke can just… do. People like me and my brother.
And the more I think about it, the more I realize I envy him. Being able to step in and out of this role, these powers. It's unfair. It's what dragged me into this.
I'd do a lot to be able to give it up.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Simultaneously cool and massively irritating. That kind of describes Stark's entire personality, now that I think about it.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the gy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire."
If I didn't know any better, I'd say the Captain America just rolled his eyes. Says a lot about our situation. "Always a way out. You may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
From the moment I saw the breaking news that Tony Stark, the Tony Stark, was Iron Man, that was all he ever was to me: a hero. Yet another memory shattered to dust because of these powers and where they put me on the pyramid of status. "A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.
Ethan scoffs. My big brother, the humblest person I know, shakes his head. "C'mon, Stark. Get your head out of your ass."
"Beg your pardon?"
"Sorry, did you not hear me because of how deep you are in your own-"
"What he means is, we were all given these powers," I rush to interrupt. "And just because you made yours yourself doesn't for a second make you any better than any of us."
I never thought I'd see the day I'd meet Tony Stark in person. I'd die before talking back to him.
Well, death is still a very likely possibility, considering where I'm standing.
Thor starts laughing. "You people are so petty. And tiny."
Banner takes off his glasses, rubs his eyes. "Yeah, this is a team."
"Agent Romanoff," Director Fury murmurs, "Could you escort Doctor Banner back to his…"
"Where? You rented my room."
"The cell was just in case-"
"In case you needed to kill me."
Ethan and I exchange a glance. I'm sure we've both thought about running home. Now might be the most opportune time for it, although I don't know if he knows how to fly a plane. "But you can't. I know. I tried." All thoughts of abandoning this project flee my mind. "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." How exactly someone moves on from suicidal ideation because of being a literal green monster, I'll never know. "I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"
The doctor's hand is way too close to Loki's staff. I reach for the sprinkler system and find that the water is already answering to someone else. Ethan.
Banner grabs the staff. I search somewhere else, desperate. "Dr. Banner." He stares up at Cap, barely untapped fury in his eyes. "Put down the scepter."
No one moves, not even the Doctor. He can't seriously be thinking of using that on us, right? Because if he does, there's no getting out of here.
A monitor next to the wall lets out a series of beeps, and Banner puts down Loki's staff.
"Got it."
"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."
"You located the Tesseract?"
"I could get there fastest."
"Oh, that's just great, Stark," I snarl. "Let's race!" He slams his mouth shut. Good. I don't want him for a fucking second thinking he understands a hint of what I'm going through. Of what Ethan's going through. He doesn't get it, and he never will. Not with a giant building that can run itself. Not with those goddamn impenetrable suits of armor he has.
Regardless of how many times Tony Stark has defeated evil, he doesn't understand not being able to step away.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor warns.
Stark turns to leave anyway. Of course, Rogers stops him. "You're not going alone."
"You're gonna stop me?"
"Put on the suit, let's find out."
"Steve," Ethan growls, starting forward.
It's too late, Stark has already gotten into his face, shoved my brother away. "I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
"Cap, give it up," I add. "He's not worth it."
More beeps. "Oh, my god."
"What? What is it-" My feet go flying out from under me, and I'm hurled into the wall of the lab.