Thank you so much to everyone who left a review on my last chapter.
They really do mean the world to me.
We exited the conference room and headed for the bridge. I was glad to find the atmosphere between us wasn't anywhere near as uncomfortable and awkward as it had been on the jet coming back. I was surprised but grateful at how quickly he was coming around to everything. We still clearly had a lot of things to talk about but the fact that he wasn't demanding I quit S.H.I.E.L.D or destroy my suit was a huge positive in my mind.
"I'm going to need to look over your suit," Dad said as we walked.
"Why?"
"I need to make sure it's safe. I don't want it falling apart when you're 2000 feet above the ground."
"It's fine dad. I designed and built it using all of S.H.I.E.L.D's latest technology and equipment." Dad's face clearly said he didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D nor their equipment. "Fine, go over it with a fine tooth comb if you want." It was a small price to pay if it meant dad was going to accept the suit.
"And what's with the suit colours?" he asked.
"What's wrong with silver and black?" I asked, mockingly insulted.
"It's just not what I expected."
"What, did you expect pink and purple?"
"Wouldn't be such a bad look."
I laughed as we walked through the doorway. "It's not gunna happen."
5 pairs of eyes turned to watch us as we stepped onto the bridge. All of their faces showed various signs of surprise at seeing dad and I laughing. The last time they'd seen us together had been on the jet when dad had been brooding in angry silence and throwing me dirty looks. So of course they were shocked to see us now getting along like nothing had ever happened. Natasha shot me a look that said she wanted the full story later on.
"I think it's about the mechanics" Dr Banner said, continuing their conversation. "Iridium…what do they need the Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilising agent," Dad called out. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." As he strolled past Thor he slapped him on his bicep. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You got a mean swing." The look on Thor's face said he didn't liked being touched, nor did he have any idea what Dad had just said. "Also it means that the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants."
He wandered over to the central controls. "Raise the mizzenmast, jib the topsails." The S.H.I.E.L.D agents positioned in front of their computers looked up at him like he was crazy. "That man is playing Galaga! He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."
I stifled my laughter at seeing Steve's confused face. I threw him a look that said 'I'll explain later' as I sat down beside him.
"How does Fury even see these?" he asked as he clapped a hand over one eye.
"He turns," Agent Hill said bluntly. She was obviously no fan of his as she stood with her arms crossed and a stern scowl upon her face. I couldn't say she had ever warmed up to me either so maybe it was a Stark thing.
"Sounds exhausting." He began tapping on the screens in front of him with one hand while the other slipped into his jacket pocket. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major components he still needs is a power source of high-energy density." As he spun around to face us, I watch his hand slip out of his jacket and brush up against the underside of the controls. "Something to kick-start the cube."
I locked eyes with him and raised my eyebrows. I knew exactly what he had done but I found myself having no desire to stop him. I'd always suspected there was more going on behind the scenes of S.H.I.E.L.D than just what Fury was telling me and I wanted to find out what it was. So I pretended not to notice the hacking device he had just placed and looked the other way.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked.
"Last night," he said smugly. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked, clearly irritated.
"He would have to heat the cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," I said. Steve looked at me with blank eyes.
"Unless," Dad began, "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect."
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner added.
Dad only then seemed to notice the Doctor's presence in the room. "Finally, someone who speaks English."
"Is that just what happened?" Steve mumbled beside me.
Dad approached and extended his hand to Banner. "It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled," he started. "And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. He had absolutely no filter on his mouth.
"Thanks," Banner replied reluctantly.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube," Fury announced as he entered the room. "I was hoping you might join him."
"I'd start with that stick of his," Steve interjected. "It may be magical but it works awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys?" Thor questioned. "I do not understand."
"I do!" Steve looked mildly proud for a moment. "I-I understood that reference."
"Shall we play Doctor?" Dad asked.
"This way sir."
The two of them left. I could hear Dad's voice echoing down the hallway as they walked, blabbering on about all the Stark equipment he had bought on board to track the Cube and where they should start. His joy at having someone on the helicarrier who was just as big a nerd as he was evident. I had a feeling their newly forged friendship was going to last a lot longer than just their time here.
Our little meeting seemed to be over so I excused myself and went to find my temporary bedroom aboard the ship. Everyone had been assigned a room when they'd arrived. With the Tesseract still out there not a lot of sleep was going to happen, but I was in desperate need of a shower.
As I walked I heard heavy footsteps behind me and instinctively spun around.
"Sorry, I did not mean to frighten you," Thor said.
"You didn't," I assured him. He fell into step beside me and we walked together. "Sorry about everything in the forest."
"That is alright," he said in his deep tone. "I am sorry for everything Loki has done to your people."
"Thankyou." As I looked up at this tall, muscled, blonde man, it was hard to picture him being close to the thin, black haired and frankly insane man currently locked away on the ship. As far as I knew this was the first time he had seen his brother since the events in New Mexico. This must be so hard for him, having grown up with someone, loved them, only to have them turn on you and try to destroy everything you love.
"Dr. Selvig spoke a lot about you when we were working together," I said.
"He is a good friend." His expression turned forlorn as he thought about Selvig's current situation.
"We will get him back," I stressed. "We're going to get them all back."
"You are a very brave woman," Thor commented. "On Asgard you would be a great warrior."
I beamed up at him. "Thank you." It was nice to have someone say something encouraging about my skills, without undercutting the compliment with a comment about my age or small stature.
Thor nodded his head to me before retreating down a separate corridor. I wondered what he was going to do while the rest of us searched for the Tesseract. Was he going to see his brother? Would Fury even let him see him?
How would you even start a conversation with your homicidal brother who's trying to take over a planet?
It felt amazing to finally shower and scrub myself clean. The heat of the water relaxed my muscles and for a moment all the worries about Loki and the Tesseract left my mind. But they returned the moment I stepped out and slipped into a clean catsuit.
We needed to find the Tesseract, and soon. Just because we had Loki in custody didn't mean the world was now safe from him. He would have Barton and Selvig working on whatever plan he had for the Cube while he was locked away with us. There seemed to be only 2 options available to find the Tesseract; get Loki to talk or track it down. The former seemed highly unlikely to occur so tracking it was our best option. After drying my hair and gathering it up into a messy bun, I left to see how Dad and Banner were getting along with their tracking program.
I was not the slightest bit surprised to walk into the lab to find Dad and Steve in the middle of an argument.
"In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide," dad was saying, referencing the bug he had planted on the bridge earlier.
"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around." That's when Steve noticed me standing in the doorway watching their conversation. "Did you know about this?"
"Yes," I said as I stepped inside. I noticed that while dad and Steve were standing face to face, ready to square off against each other, Dr. Banner was standing of to one side behind his workbench. Clearly he was trying to stay out of their argument.
I walked past the men having a stare down and jumped up to sit on the end of the workbench. I saw Loki's sceptre had been placed at the other end of the bench and I made a mental note to steer as clear from it as possible.
"You're breaking into the organisation that you work for," Steve stated.
"No, my father is breaking into the organisation I work for," I corrected.
"And it's called hacking these days Gramps," Dad added.
"Fury had Selvig and I conducting research on the Tesseract but I don't think he was entirely truthful about what he was going to do with the information we gave him. I just want to know who I'm working for Steve," I explained.
"An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome," Dad said as he suddenly produced a bag of blueberries.
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve said. "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's not really my style," Dad said casually as he threw a few blueberries in his mouth.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve said derisively.
"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit and B, not of use?"
"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Banner asked.
Steve's mouth opened but no words came out. He hesitated. "Just find the Cube." He swiftly left the lab.
"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? I'm wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."
"But he isn't wrong," I said. I jumped down off the bench and walked over to dad's computer. "Loki is trying to wind us up. Right now we need to focus on finding the Tesseract. Then we can worry about S.H.I.E.L.D's plans for it."
"You're right," Banner said. "I've finished the algorithm. I've just got to enter and calibrate it. Then we can start sweeping for the signature."
"Great, I'll help you set it up." I'd barely started entering Banner's algorithm when Fury arrived at the lab and requested I speak with him privately.
I followed him onto the bridge, where I noticed he had bought up the live surveillance feeds of Loki. He was casually pacing inside his cell. There was a smile playing on his lips. It was becoming clearer that he was exactly where he wanted to be.
"Loki isn't talking," Fury said.
"Not exactly surprising," I said as I sat down at the large table.
Fury remained standing as he began pacing in a similar fashion to Loki. "We need to find out what his plan is, and more importantly, where the Tesseract is."
"Dad and Banner have starting sweeping for the Tesseract's signal. Hopefully in a few hours we'll know exactly where it is."
"We may not have that long. We have no idea what Loki has Barton and Selvig doing while he's in here. We need to get information out of him, now."
"I agree. But I don't see why you're talking to me about this."
"Apparently Loki has shown some interest in you." He stopped pacing to stand across the table from me.
"If by interest, you mean staring at me and making me feel uncomfortable, sure."
"That's why we want to send you in to talk to him."
I couldn't have been more shocked if he'd just slapped me across the face. "Don't you think someone more experienced in this would be better, like Natasha?" I asked. I had zero experience in interrogation and I did not want to start my training by being shoved into a room with Loki and being expected to get everything out of him.
"No, you can do this. Loki's underestimating you. He thinks he'll be able to manipulate you. He'll be less on guard talking to you, and he might let something slip."
"I doubt it." I was more worried about what I would say, not what he was going to say. What if I said something wrong and set him off? What if I accidently give something away about S.H.I.E.L.D?
"Can you do this?" he asked. He'd phased it as a question yet his tone suggested there was only one possible answer.
I paused. "Yes."
"Good," he said, pleased at my cooperation. We both knew he wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Meet me outside of his cell in 10 minutes."