Steve was furious when he walked into the room to find Tony actually poking Banner with an electrical prod. Steve couldn't believe his eyes - was this really Howard's son!? Someone this...irresponsible!?

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve nearly snatched the rod from Tony altogether lest the man wanted to try again for the Hulk. At this point, Steve wouldn't put it behind Tony to do it.

It was even more infuriating to see Tony calm as ever, as if he hadn't just tried something dangerously stupid. He was simply studying Banner for any sign that he might be turning green soon. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" He all but circled Banner. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

Steve shook his head. "Is everything a joke to you!?"

"Funny things are," Tony shrugged lightly.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny!" Steve took a breath in and realized his words and how they sounded in Banner's perspective. "No offense, doctor," he offered Banner an apologetic smile. He knew Banner was probably trying his best to remain himself but the truth was, as sad as it was, that if he turned into the Hulk then they were all near goners.

Banner, however, took no actual offence. He merely smiled back. "No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Tony still wasn't convinced. "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

Steve once again looked at Tony like he was crazy, and he was beginning to suspect that it was the truth. "And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark."

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony jerked a thumb over at Banner without even looking at the man. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

Banner struggled to speak when all eyes turned on him. He wasn't expecting to be thrown into that conversation. "Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and…"

Steve could hear the indecision in Banner's tone, ultimately making him ask if he agreed with Tony. "Doctor?"

Banner hesitated for another minute before realizing that if anyone would be trustworthy enough to keep that secret, it would be Steve. " 'A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it…"

"Well, I think that was meant for you," Banner pointed at Tony, much to the latter's genuine surprise. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…" Steve trailed off once he was subjected to Tony's look but the remainder of the words still came out a few seconds later. "...building in New York?" It was a bit flashy for his taste when Seren first showed it to him and even now, his opinion had not changed.

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Banner asked curiously.

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Tony said off-handedly, far too casual.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Banner still motioned to Tony while he addressed Steve, admittedly making a good point. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

Steve wouldn't deny that it was a good question to ask, not that he would like to see anyone working with the Tesseract. Right now, he hated that Seren had been forced to take care of that thing while he was in the dark about it. That thing was dangerous enough when left alone and they placed it so close to Seren and everyone else. "I wouldn't know, Seren didn't tell me but...I could ask Chloe—"

"You really think Megamind is going to tell you anything?" Tony rolled his eyes, initially missing the glare Steve sent his way. "She's embedded with S.H.I.E.L.D., as is Agent Soul in case you didn't get the memo."

"Stop calling them that! Chloe doesn't like it and as for Seren, it's offensive."

Tony still didn't see the problem. "Why?" He shrugged. "It's a literal description of their powers. Winters is from the mind and Soul runs on star matter. That little star on her neck?" He made a gesture at his own neck for reference. "That's the mark of her people. She's an alien."

"She's as much a human as you and I are," snapped Steve. He could see the reaction on Banner's face at the revelation and he was more than ready to take Banner and Tony to defend Seren if need be.

"Well—" Tony sniffed, "—maybe not so much you, huh?"

Steve's face fell flat. He could care less what Tony thought of him and his own unique biology but he wouldn't let Tony keep calling out Seren the way he was, especially when Seren wasn't even there to defend herself. "You need to leave the nicknames behind, Stark. Seriously."

Tony rolled his eyes, groaning dramatically. "God, I didn't get this much heat from Winters who, by the way, is as shady as this entire organization is."

Steve groaned. "Is that what we're doing, then? We're just going to insult one Agent after the other?"

"I'm not insulting anyone, merely calling out what I see and know." It was honestly irritating to Tony that none of them could see what he saw and they were all just brushing his comments off. He said things for a reason. "But you know what? Pretty soon, I'm going to know everything once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

That made Steve stop altogether, as it did to Banner. "I'm sorry, did you say...?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." Tony held out the bag of blueberries he picked up from the table. "Blueberry?"

Banner refrained from any berries and the conversation for a moment.

Steve couldn't help himself. Tony was turning out to be an insufferable version of the Starks. "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible." Tony dropped a few more berries into his mouth.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

Tony smiled as if he'd been waiting to hear that line, and perhaps he had been. "Following is not really my style."

Steve smiled wryly. "And you're all about style, aren't you?" His question struck Tony more than it would've to anyone else.

"Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?"

Just as Steve was about to respond, Banner cut in, "Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

Of course there were a couple questions he had but Steve wasn't going to let anything cloud his mind in this mission. "Just find the cube," he told them and left the lab.

He bumped into Chloe a few corridors down (he may have gotten a little mixed up). "Anything from Loki?" he dared to be hopeful.

Chloe shook her head. "No. He's tight-lipped. Not even Seren knew."

Steve studied her expression. Against his better judgement, he suddenly asked, "Chloe, do you know what S.H.I.E.L.D. was planning on doing with the Tesseract?"

Chloe blinked. Steve hated that he'd asked her that but at the same time he really wanted to know the answer and much more if she would actually answer.

"No. But if it helps, it was also Seren's constant question. She was set to guard the Tesseract, just that. Nobody would ever tell her what the entire mission was about. It was top secret."

Steve thanked her for the answer. It coincided with Seren's behavior during the mission. And look at that, the mission had taken her away.

"I have to go see if Coulson has anything," Chloe mumbled, excusing herself.

Steve didn't bother trying to stop her. He'd seen her face and he could safely assume that she was telling the truth. Tony's words about her were not going to get into his head...Tony's other words about the Tesseract, however…

Steve started for the hull of the ship.

~ 0 ~

Chloe found Coulson and Thor in the briefing room looking at something on the computers. She soon recognized the picture of Jane Foster on the screen.

"...we moved Jane Foster. We've got an excellent observatory in Traunsee. She was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe," Coulson was assuring Thor.

"Thank you," Thor said, "It's no accident Loki taking Erik Selvig. I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Erik is a good man." He met Chloe's gaze and felt for her as well. "The Lady of the stars...she has a better winning chance. She's strong."

Chloe nodded fervently. She had no doubt about Seren's strength. "It's because Seren's strong that I'm worried about what Loki's scepter did to her," she confessed. "How he managed to brainwash her. This isn't the first time we've dealt with brainwashing and Seren's never fallen like that."

"The scepter is embedded with a kind of power that's unique," Thor explained, "But it's not permanent. No brainwashing ever is. We will get her back."

Chloe hoped the same. "Thanks. Seren's sort of like my adopted sister too. Well, she adopted me but you get the idea. She would never hurt a fly and Loki made her shoot at us like she didn't even know us," Chloe said, feeling much more pain than she ever thought she'd feel — an anger that she never really experienced before. "I'm afraid of the reason why Loki took her away."

Thor agreed. Loki was precise and he only took certain people-the scientists, the agents...but a Celessian? That spoke of an army of his own. "I'm sorry," he said, knowing there was nothing else he could do at the moment. "Like I said, we'll find her. I know she kept her word and looked after Jane while I was gone."

Chloe managed to smile a bit. She peered around the Asgardian to see the screen where Jane's picture still was. "Yeah, Seren stayed with Jane and Selvig to continue the Foster Theory. She tried learning about your world too — Asgard? — from her grandmother. You really changed everything around here."

And yet somehow that didn't seem to bring Thor any joy. "They were better as they were," Thor said quietly, turning towards the glass window. "We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we...we come here battling like Bilchsteim."

Chloe and Coulson were in the same state of confusion.

"I'm sorry, like what?" Coulson asked.

"Bilchsteim? You know; huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?" Thor was met with the same blank expressions. "They are repulsive, and they trample everything in their path. When I first came to earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price. And now again. In my youth I courted war."

"War hasn't started yet," Fury walked into the room, "You think you can make Loki tell us what the Tesseract is?"

"I do not know. Loki's mind is far afield, it's not just power he craves, it's vengeance upon me. There's no pain that would prize his need from him."

" A lot of guys think that, until the pain stops."

Thor met Fury's gaze. "What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking. What are you prepared to do?"

"Loki is a prisoner."

"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?"

It was an uncomfortable question that everyone had been asking themselves without the courage to speak it out loud.

~ 0 ~

Night turned into morning and when Fury went to check in on the others in the lab, he found no work to be done. Banner and Tony were just standing there. They were too quiet for Fury's taste.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony replied, smiling too tightly as well.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract, in case you forgot."

"We are," assured Banner, "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."

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Tony suddenly looked away to his monitor and after a quick skim, he had a question in line for Fury. "What is PHASE 2?"

Before Fury could answer, if he would even have answered, Steve stormed into the room and dropped an assault rifle on the table with a loud thud. "PHASE 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons!" To say Steve was infuriated would be a deep understatement. It was like finding out everything he fought for didn't even matter in the end. S.H.I.E.L.D. was going ahead to do exactly what he worked so hard to keep away from the world. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow," he added for Tony.

Tony would give him the point this time, impressed by the tractics.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury began to say, "This does not mean that we're…"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony moved the computer screen towards Fury so he, as well as everyone else, could see the major plans of weapons they were intending on building wiht the Tesseract's help. "What were you lying?"

"This is why you didn't tell Seren everything," Steve rounded on Fury. "Smart move because there is no way she would've been for this."

"Agent Soul would've done anything if it was required," Fury said, but Steve shook his head.

He came to know Seren, learn about her priorities and her intentions. Nothing about her would ever imply that she'd be for this type of plan. "You would have told her your plans from the start instead of keeping her in the dark," Steve said with all the certainty in the world. "I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Natasha when she, Chloe and Thor walked in.

"What is that?" Chloe pointed to the weapon, eyeing it suspiciously.

"Does it look familiar, Megamind?" Tony's use of his nickname, for the moment, wasn't regarded as Chloe felt the accusation in his tone was far more important.

"Excuse me?"

"She doesn't know," Steve snapped at him but Tony merely hummed to voice his disagreement.

"Doesn't know what?" Chloe looked between them, expecting an answer that was coming much too slowly.

"Phase 2," Banner was the one to answer for her sake and Natasha's.

"What is Phase 2?" Natasha directly looked at Fury. If anyone would have the answers, it was him, but whether he would give the answer was still up in the air.

"PHASE 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons," Steve glared at Fury as he answered the question.

"And how did you come across that, exactly?" Natasha lifted an eyebrow at him. She suspected the answer but she would rather hear it out loud that the golden boy had gone lurking through secret rooms. When Steve said nothing, she turned her attention to Banner. "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"

A sour smile spread across Banner's face. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you!"

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"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. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!"

"Because of him," Fury pointed at Thor who was left stunned at how this entire conversation had suddenly steered towards him.

"Me?"

"Not too long ago we had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. Our best agent wasn't able to stop it so we revisited the idea to expand the Avengers Initiative."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" Thor argued.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury challenged the Asgardian who couldn't answer that. "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 controlled the cube?" Steve chimed in sourly.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," snapped Thor. "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

When the word 'war' was thrown into the conversation, Steve immediately inserted himself. "A higher form?" According to history, there had been no more World Wars and he would really like to keep it like that.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something!" Fury kept going despite having everyone against him.

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony said with a frown. "`Cause that always calms everything right down."

Fury side-glanced him at that comment. "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—"

"Wait, wait! Hold on!" Tony cut Steve off and glared. "How is this now about me!?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything!?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," remarked Thor amongst the arguments that unfolded between the group.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury was right on him after that.

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?"

"YOU'RE NOT MY CHAMPION!"

"Are you boys really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats!" Natasha was still going on against Banner.

"And Captain America is on the threat poll?"

"We all are!"

"You're on that list?" Tony nearly laughed at Steve. "Are you above or below angry bees?"

"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack…"

"Shut up!" Chloe snapped at both of them. "Arguing isn't helping anything—"

"Oh Megamind, come off your high horse, will you?"

"You know what?" Chloe turned to Tony, her eyes flashing blue. "The fact you think that I'm the blue cartoon with a big head is rich coming from you of all people!"

As the arguments grew louder and harder, no one realized the sceptor's blue gem glowing magnificently bright.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor was arguing with Fury and had Banner's semi-agreement.

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team?" He humorlessly laughed. "No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're—we're a time bomb."

Despite the situation, Fury wasn't throwing any anger towards Banner. It was more weariness and everyone knew why. "You need to step away."

"Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?" Tony clapped a hand over Banner's shoulder.

Of all the things going on, Steve couldn't believe that Tony was still going on about bringing the Hulk out. "You know damn well why! Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me!"

"Guys…" Chloe said as the two got in each other's faces.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist…" Tony started listing off with pride. Behind him, Natasha gave an agreeing shrug. That pretty much summed him up alright.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve's tone was low with a new type of anger that Seren hadn't yet seen, and he had grounds for that anger. Tony was proving to be a special situation. "I've seen 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 a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony said flatly.

A humorless laugh slipped from Steve. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Instead of the rightful anger he should feel, Steve smirked. "Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughed from his spot. "You people are so petty, and tiny."

At this point, Chloe would agree. "We are a terrible combination but we need to put out fires and focus on the bigger one!"

"Yeah, this is a team," Banner muttered.

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Winters, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his—"

Banner cut Fury off in a loud yell. "WHERE? YOU RENTED MY ROOM!"

"The cell was just—"

"IN CASE YOU NEEDED TO KILL ME. BUT YOU CAN'T, I KNOW, I TRIED!" The room fell silent at the admission. Banner swallowed hard as all eyes laid on him. "I got low," he said, explaining slowly. " He stopped, everyone staring at him. "I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy .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. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Fury and Natasha had silently reached for their respective weapons.

"Doctor Banner, put down the scepter," Steve instructed, not quite ordered. From where he stood, it didn't even look like Banner had realized he picked up the scepter.

Suddenly, the monitor made a noise. The Tesseract had been found. It was enough to make Banner put the scepter down and shift his focus on the Tesseract again. "Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all," he muttered.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor inched forwards but still held caution.

"I can get there faster," Tony said casually as if they hadn't just been in a neck-deep argument.

"Look, all of us—"

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor interrupted whatever plan Steve had been about to say.

"I think you're right," Chloe's agreement came in quietly and rather slowly, as she was just now realizing. Having the Tesseract was only proving to bring out the worst in everyone. It was horrible.

"You're not going alone!"

Chloe snapped out of her thoughts to see Steve and Tony once again at each other's neck.

Tony had just smacked Steve's hand off his shoulder. "You gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out!"

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony stepped closer to Steve, facing off.

"Put on the suit!"

"Stop it!" Chloe yelled just before Banner did too.

"Oh my God!" He had spotted something on the monitor and that something created a terrible rumble of explosions.

The room shattered and sent everyone flying into different directions. Steve, Fury, Thor and Tony were lucky enough to have landed across the room, haphazardly near the corridor.

"Put on the suit!" Steve immediately gave the order to Tony and this time, perhaps the only time, Tony didn't disagree.

"Yep!"

They scrambled to get up on their feet. Steve located Fury and Thor not too far from them but he realized that Chloe, Natasha and Banner were nowhere in sight. He panicked.

"Chloe?" He called out and moved about as much as he could around the destroyed room. "Chloe!"

"Hill!?" Fury called through their comms. "What's going on?"

"It's Stardust, sir. She just took out Number 3 engine!"

Steve paused and looked over to Fury. He recognized the alias all too well.

"Turbine's loose. Mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there and make repairs while we're in the air. We lose one more engine, we won't be. Plus, if Stardust makes another blast, we'll go down. Somebody's got to get her and patch that engine."

Fury nodded at Steve then Tony. "You heard, go!"

"Yeah!" Tony was all for it but Steve was reluctant for many reasons.

First of all, he didn't hear anything from Chloe. She was stuck somewhere below and she wasn't responding. And second of all, engage Seren in a fight? They used to joke all the time about who would win in a fight and that was all it was meant to be: jokes. Never in his life did he want to fight Seren.

"Cap!" Fury called. "You need to go!

"But Chloe—"

"I'm good!" They heard the woman exclaim.

Chloe, Natasha and Banner had plummeted down into the lower equipment rooms. Chloe felt her back aching from the terrible landing but she could move, albeit slowly.

"If Seren's out there, somebody's gotta bring her in before she does something she'll regret!" She called up above. "Steve! Bring her back, please!"

Steve willed himself to stand up for Chloe. She was right. If Tony was going to be preoccupied with the engines, it would be up to him to handle Seren. Steve wasn't sure he could win that fight for many reasons.

A/N:

The Avengers were always so fucking chaotic I swear xD. I wonder if having Seren around would've changed things because in terms of personalities, she's more level-headed than the whole group. Chloe's just plain chaotic herself.

And speaking of Seren, my girl's back next chapter...to fight! Poor Steve. May the odds ever be in your favor! ;)

As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"

For the review: Pretty much answered the questions here except for who would win. We'll just have to wait and see!