Steve was walking down the hallways trying not to think about the kid, when he neared the lab that Stark and Dr. Banner were working in and he turned to go see how far they were on the problem.

When he entered, the first thing he saw was Stark zapping Dr. Banner with a small electrical prod and the doctor cry, "Ow!"

"Hey!" Steve cried as he walked further into the room.

Stark was ignoring him as he said to Dr. Banner, "Nothing?"

"Are you nuts?" Steve snapped at the man in complete fury.

The billionaire was putting everyone on this ship in danger. Of course, Steve was furious about it.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Stark was asking Dr. Banner completely ignoring Steve. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve demanded as he came closer to the pair.

"Funny things are," Stark finally responded to him.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve snapped before turning to Dr. Banner. "No offence, Doctor."

"No, it's alright," Dr. Banner said. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Stark began to walk away, grinning at Banner and pointing at him, "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve responded coolly.

"You think I'm not?" Stark said raising an eyebrow at Steve. "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?" Steve asked sharply.

"He's a spy, Captain, the spy. His secrets have secrets," Stark gestured over at Dr. Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh. . ." Dr. Banner shifted under the attention. "I just wanna finish my work here and. . ."

"Doctor?" Steve asked.

Dr. Banner paused for a moment before he said, "A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it," Steve said with a nod.

Dr. Banner pointed at Stark, "Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"Stark Tower? That big ugly. . ." Steve began before Stark shot him a look. ". . . building in New York?"

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

"That's just the prototype," Stark said with a shrug. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Dr. Banner asked. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that," Stark said as he walked away from them, pulling out a portable cell phone device and flicking through it, "once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

Steve stared at Stark in shock, "I'm sorry, did you say. . .?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," Stark explained as he scooped up a snack bag of blueberries and popped a few in his mouth. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide."

He held the bag out to Steve, "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve demanded.

Stark raised an eyebrow at that pulling back his bag of blueberries, "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible."

Steve narrowed his eyes and said, "I think Loki's trying to wind us up. Look at what he did with Agent Jackson. 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."

"Following is not really my style," Stark said as he popped more blueberries in his mouth.

Steve smiled a little at that and said, "And you're all about style, aren't you?"

Stark frowned at him. Steve smirked a little more. He had clearly hit a nerve.

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

"Steve," Dr. Banner said quietly, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

Steve hesitated at that. It was completely possible. But then he shook his head and turned back to the matter at hand.

Steve knew that there was no way. Although a part of him was still questioning this now that Stark and Dr. Banner had pointed it out.

"Just find the cube," he said before he walked out of the lab.

He didn't look back, but he paused once he left and considered the possibility again before turning towards the hull of the ship.

The only way to know for sure is to find out for himself.

11111111111111111111

Percy felt a little better after his spar with Nat. She had a way of helping him calm down and think things through.

Loki had been trying the rile him up and confuse him.

Once he and Natasha were done, Nat had disappeared, and Percy had a feeling that she was going down to talk with Loki about Agent Barton.

Percy meanwhile had decided to return to the bridge of the ship and talk with Director Fury about what Loki had been talking about.

Percy entered the bridge and headed over to the director. He murmured, "Director?"

Fury turned towards him and laid a hand on his shoulder, murmuring back, "Son, you don't need to tell me anything you don't want to tell. I don't care whatever Loki was talking about. I just need to be sure that you're willing to fight him."

"Of course, I am, sir," Percy said as he stared up at his boss with furrowed eyebrows. "But you may need to know. . ."

"No," Fury said firmly. "Your past is your business, Agent Jackson. I don't want to hear it, alright?"

Percy slowly nodded, staring up at the director in confusion, his mind probing towards Fury's own. Fury was a brick wall though, so Percy couldn't figure out why the man wasn't going to let him speak.

He blinked as Fury added calmly, "Now, go. . ."

The director didn't finish because at that moment Agent Coulson called over to Percy, "Agent Jackson? If you could join us."

Percy glanced over and spotted Thor with the other agent.

He glanced up at Fury and the director nodded at him, giving him permission to go over and join the pair.

Percy walked over to them and came to a stop next to Agent Coulson, saying, "Yes? What is it?"

Coulson gestured at Thor and said, "He wanted to talk to you about something. I'll leave you two for a moment while I pull up the information you want to know, Thor."

"Thank you," Thor said gruffly.

Percy watched as Agent Coulson walked off towards one of the monitors.

Percy turned back to Thor and said, "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Indeed," Thor said, turning his attention back to Percy.

The bigger man paused for a moment, clearly gathering his thoughts.

Then he said, quietly, "I know what Loki was speaking to you about. It was not until I heard him say your full name that I realized who you are."

Percy shifted at that nervously before he said, carefully, "I really. . ."

"Do not deny it, Perseus," Thor said quietly. "Among my people you have been considered the greatest of the new heroes of Olympus since you returned the lightning bolt to Lord Zeus."

Percy let out a self-deprecating laugh at that, "In case you haven't noticed, Thor, I'm not a hero anymore. The gods made their choice and chose to believe what Gaea said instead of what I said."

"You are still one," Thor said giving Percy a look. "You still have a hero's heart, Perseus Jackson. And among the people of Asgard you are still considered one of the greatest heroes. Never forget that."

Then Thor turned back towards Agent Coulson and headed over to the man.

Percy was frozen in place for a moment, his mind not being able to understand why Thor had told him that.

He shook his head and followed Thor over to Coulson who had begun to talk to him about the image of a woman and her file on the screen. The name on the screen read, JANE FOSTER.

Percy tilted his head and slipped closer, listening as Coulson said, "As soon as Loki took the doctor, 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."

"Thank you," Thor told Coulson quietly, before they both began to walk away from the screen. Percy followed them, still listening quietly. "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 talks about you a lot," Coulson said. "You changed his life. You changed everything around here."

"They were better as they were," Thor said quietly as he glanced over at Percy a sad look on his face. "We pretend on Asgard. . . and Olympus for that matter. . . that we're more advanced, but we. . . we come here battling like bilchsnipe."

"Like what?" Coulson sounded confused.

"Bilchsnipe?" Thor responded. "You know; huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?"

"Don't think so," Coulson said, exchanging a confused look with Percy.

"They are repulsive," Thor said as he turned towards the bridge window and stared out it, "and they trample everything in their path."

Percy stared at him, head tilting to the side taking in the gods posture. He clearly was lamenting all that had happened.

"When I first came to Earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price," Thor said tiredly. "And now again. In my youth I courted war."

"War hasn't started yet." Percy turned as the Director walked over to them and met Thor's eyes. "You think you can make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

Percy frowned at that. He didn't think that Loki would respond to Thor anymore than he had to Percy himself.

"I do not know," Thor said tiredly sounding hesitant. "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," Fury said as he moved closer to Thor.

"What are you asking me to do?" Thor demanded eyes narrowing.

Fury frowned, "I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?"

"Loki is a prisoner," Thor said sharply.

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

That caused Percy to stiffen.

That didn't sound good.