Chapter six: Science Experiment

Emma stormed into the hallway, trying to calm her furious heart. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute, trying to process the information that she had just received. Was that the only reason SHIELD wanted her to join them? She was just a weapon, an object for them to use for their own purposes? Surely, there was more to her than that. At this moment, though, she couldn't find anything about her that was special and the only that made her 'special' was in her blood. She bit her lip, trying not cry. She refused to not be a weapon. She was a person, damn it.

She let out a deep breath and then let it out. She felt her heartbeat slow and she was calmer than before. The strength that Emma had felt when she had thrown Fury across the room was slowly fading away and she felt normal again for a single moment but then she remembered that she was not. Emma rubbed her hands over her face and walked down the hallway in search of her grandfather. She found him in the science lab with Tony and Dr. Banner.

"Is everything a joke to you?" she heard her grandfather as she walked into the lab.

"Funny things are," Tony replied.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor," Steve said.

"Is everything alright?" Emma asked. "I'll gladly throw him off the edge of this helicarrier, if need be."

"You wouldn't be able to take me, short stack," Tony said smirking.

"You'd be surprised. Looks can be deceiving," Emma replied, her jaw clenching at the thought of her newfound powers.

"It's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," Dr. Banner replied.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut," Tony told him.

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

"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," Tony replied.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, curiously.

"Of course, he's hiding something," she said with a roll of her eyes. "His secrets have secrets. Is his name his actual name?"

"Short stack's onto something. He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy," Tony replied and Emma glared at him for the nickname. "It's bugging him to, isn't it?"

"Uh. . . I just want to finish my work here and . . . " Dr. Banner said shyly and Emma smiled slightly at him.

"Doctor?" Steve asked gently.

"A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab about the cube," Dr. Banner said.

"I heard it," Steve said nodding.

"Well, I think that was meant for you," Dr. Banner said, pointing to Tony. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly building in New York?" Steve asked and Tony gave him a look.

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

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Tony replied..

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

"Probably making weapons," Emma said.

Tony tapped his nose with his finger and pointed at Emma with a knowing smirk.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD'S secure files," Tony said.

"I'm sorry, did you say. . . ?" Steve asked.

"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 said and then held out a bag towards them. "Blueberry?"

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

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible," Tony replied.

"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," Steve said.

"Following is not really my style," Tony replied.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked..

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

"You both have good points," Emma said, trying to prevent anymore fighting."We do need to stay focused but Steve, you're telling me that nothing seems fishy about all of this? I work for these people and I barely trust them."

Steve gave her a disappointed look and her jaw clenched in irritation. She watched him take it all in but as an obedient soldier he shook it off.

"Just find the cube," Steve said, walking out of the lab.

Tony turned to Emma, who stood there awkwardly wondering what she should do. Follow Steve or crawl into a hole?

"I figured that you would have sided with him," Tony said. "Him being your grandfather and all."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about," Emma said, lying horribly.

"It's pretty obvious," Dr. Banner said. "I mean, you're Peggy Carter's granddaughter, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that Steve is my grandfather. I mean, anybody could be my grandfather. Maybe, it's one of the Howling Commandos or someone else from the good ol' days," Emma said.

"You know, for someone that works for SHIELD you're a horrible liar," Tony replied.

"Ok, FINE, but you can't tell anyone. I've already spent my life as a lab experiment because of SHIELD. I don't want anyone else to treat me like one either," Emma told them.

Her cheeks flushed with irritation, she twirled on her heels and walked out of the lab. Emma walked down the hallway with her heart hammering in her chest and she leaned against one of the walls, trying to calm her heart rate down. Just as she was calming down, Emma felt someone kneel down in front of her and she didn't have to guess to know who it was.

"I'm not going to say anything," Dr. Banner told her and stood against the wall next to her. "If you want to talk, that's fine."

It was silent for a few minutes before she decided to speak up. She took off her glasses and began wiping them on her shirt, using her not so dirty glasses as an excuse to not look at him.

"I was fine growing up as Peggy Carter's granddaughter, I accepted that and after my parents' death I eventually accepted that as well but I stand there this evening and I simply refuse to accept that my only defining quality is that I am a weapon. I've let people get to me before but never once did I let them control me," Emma said with a shake of her head, slipping her glasses back on. "I may be Peggy Carter's granddaughter and Captain America's as well but I am my own person. I decide my own fate, no one else can do that for me."

Dr. Banner stared at the 21 year old before him and was amazed at how strong she was. He could see the fear of the unknown swimming in her eyes and despite how afraid she was, he could see how hard she was willing to fight. He wondered where all of this had come from and he suspected that Fury was involved. What did he do to this poor girl to make her so weary? Before he could ask her any of the questions swarming in his head, she had marched off to find her grandfather leaving Bruce Banner thunderstruck. He walked back into the lab and said nothing to Tony as he continued working at his own computer with thoughts of the young Carter girl dancing in his head.