Chapter 15 – The Team Begins To Form

A/n: Hey y'all! You're not supposed to like Piper that much don't worry because I decided whilst writing it that I couldn't make this a Piper/Toni story so prepare for Bruce/Toni or Clint/Toni probably the former but I may change my mind. Congrats to youwannabekate, the red lines annoyed me enough that you're now in my dictionary as well.

HockeyGal09: Glad you enjoyed it.

.Uchiha: I'm glad you like Toni because she's just as fun to write. Don't worry your reaction is the one I wanted. Piper is supposed to seem overly protective besides Toni needs a reason to blow up at him because she's blown up at everyone else at some point.

youwannabekate: Yeah, it's a really mean game of tennis :) Other than Toni no the others aren't particularly fond of Piper because he was abrasive towards them first. I know right; Bruce would never ever do that. Glad you still like it with the change. Don't worry it's coming up and they're having a private conversation about some of the things they said in this chapter. Hahahahahaha… oh I needed that thanks for the laugh.

paisley15: We agree again :) Yes, there is nothing wrong with being overprotective but to Piper's level with someone who obviously doesn't need it that much… he needs to calm down but no promises. He wouldn't be IC otherwise. He tends to think of Toni as someone who can't look after herself despite evidence to the contrary because of her suicidal moves. When I wrote that I thought, yeah that was bad of him to do but he can be redeemed but the character got away from me and I was like yeah he's writing himself to be capable of being bashed. The things is it's weird because I really love Pepper :D I actually preferred the more self-assured movie version but I loved the subtle dig at Natasha that wasn't in the movie.

XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yeah that last chapter wrote itself pretty sure it was nothing to do with me :D Steve in Iron Man is probably going to get angsty

Booklover2526: Well cheer away because it'll probably happen. Thank you

SkipperStark: Glad you liked it, here you go

twilightjazz: Glad you loved it :)

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Plenty of burns going around; some worse than others lol. I agree with your character assessments. Glad you liked it :D

Steve didn't want to admit it but he knew that what Toni had said to him back then was true. He was the Avenger that didn't have anything special about himself without the help of others. Bruce may have exposed himself to a lot of gamma radiation and become the Hulk but he was still a genius in his own right. Natasha, Clint & Toni were all without actual superpowers but through training and insane levels of genius they had still become heroes. And Thor was born with his powers; he didn't have to gain them through a mutation. Steve had to be injected with a serum to gain his strength and healing abilities.

Toni noticed Steve's face darkening and determined that the past shown in this film was getting to him. Determined not to let Amora get her way and cause rifts within the team she rose from the couch and said, "Steve, can I have a word outside?"

He nodded absentmindedly and followed her to the elevator which took them down to the next floor to ensure privacy. Even the vents on the R&D floors were monitored because of Clint's tendencies to climb into them. Clint had gotten quite a shock the first time he'd been in there.

"Now tell me why that comment bothered you so much," Toni insisted, "I was in a catty mood after being bombarded with frankly useless insults – I need to teach you how to insult people – and I didn't really mean what I said."

"But it's true," Steve pointed out, "I am the way I am because of the serum that Dr. Erskine used on me."

"And I'm not the person I used to be because of another doctor who taught me that I should make the most of my gifts," Toni said dismissing this argument, "it may have made you more capable to deal with the villains but it didn't change the reasons why you wanted to do it. You don't like bullies and that's something that didn't come from a bottle okay."

"But…" Steve tried but Toni simply cut him off with a glare causing him to scramble to say, "Okay!"

Clearly satisfied that she had got the answer she had been looking for Toni turned back towards the elevator until Steve called her name and she turned back to face him only for him to hesitate before pulling her into an awkward sort of hug that made her feel extremely uncomfortable. But she put up with it because this was Steve and he didn't have any idea what else to do. She quickly extricated herself from his grasp the first moment she could and accepted his muttered thanks before practically slamming the button down that would take them back to the others.

When they entered the room it was quite obvious that Piper was in an even worse mood that he had been before she left. She wondered momentarily what the others had said but then brushed it off. It wasn't like she had done anything lately to annoy him as she hadn't pulled any supposedly suicidal moves and the others wouldn't be annoying him. Would they?

The moment Toni took her seat next to Clint and Steve returned to his armchair the movie restarted giving the others no chance to ask what had happened which Toni knew JARVIS had done on purpose.

On the jet approaching the helicarrier Clint opened the rear hatch with his bow in his hand and he loaded an arrow neatly into it before neatly using the wind to carry it into one of the engines where it latched on and began to beep.

Back in the lab Steve was still staring down Toni and appeared to have been driven past his morals of never hitting a lady, "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

"What was that about never hitting a woman over words?" Natasha said sarcastically narrowing her eyes.

Steve attempted to focus on the fact that Toni didn't hate him over his comments and didn't dignify this with a reply. Well more like he didn't know how to reply.

Thor seemed to find this immensely funny as he started to laugh darkly, "You people are so petty and tiny."

"Yeah, this is a team," Bruce said sarcastically.

"Agent Romanoff would you escort Dr Banner back to his…" Fury began trying to soothe things over but only alienating Bruce more.

"Where? You rented my room," Bruce said angrily.

"The cell was just in case…" Fury tried to recover once more.

"In case you needed to kill me," Bruce enunciated carefully, "But you can't. I know, I tried," seeing the looks of shock on most people's faces he continued in a softer tone, "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. 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 want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" His eyes were beginning to flicker green as his anger only increased.

Fury's hand reached for his gun as he got nervous and he flipped down the band that was holding it in place. "Dr. Banner," Steve said having been distracted from his argument with Toni, "put down the sceptre." Bruce somewhere in the middle of his rant had picked up the nearest thing to him that could be used to protect himself and that turned out to be Loki's sceptre.

"That was a little frightening," Piper said and Toni winced. Bruce didn't like it when people referred to him as any form of scary because it reminded him of the period where the Hulk was really just a mindless beast that he couldn't control at all.

Suddenly the computer tracking the Tesseract found the signal and began to beep loudly, "got it," Toni confirmed as Bruce put down the sceptre. "Sorry, kids," he said sarcastically walking over to the screen, "you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked making his way over along with Natasha.

"If you tell me where it is I've got the fastest air speed," Toni said fully prepared to rush out of the lab.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor boomed indignantly.

"You're not going alone," Steve said darkly attempting to grab a hold of Toni's arm but she automatically slapped it away. He had lost the right to have physical contact when he brushed her off.

"I didn't want to lose the last link to…" Steve said trailing off but Toni knew what he meant. Back then and to a lesser extent now she had been important because she was Steve's link to Howard, to his past.

"You're gonna stop me," Toni scoffed.

"Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve reiterated clearly really not wanting Toni to go alone.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Toni jibed.

"Put on the suit," Steve insisted.

"I'm glad you two at least worked together in a crisis or this team would have been completely doomed even with a big event," Natasha sighed not understanding how the two had cooperated so well in battle but before that they squabbled like children.

Bruce removed his glasses in shock as he stared at the Tesseract's location on the grid, "Oh, my god," he said softly. Then all hell broke loose as Clint activated the arrow and there was a huge explosion in the engine it had hit. It burst through the lab and the Team were thrown to the side with Toni and Steve landing beside the door and Natasha and Bruce flying through a glass wall along with other debris.

"And this is where I stop talking okay," Clint said and the others simply acknowledged that including Piper who knew a little about what had happened to insure he hadn't been accidentally insensitive to anyone.

"Put on the suit," Steve said in a completely different tone as Toni agreed with a quick, "Yeah!" Steve attempted to help Toni get up straight but she shoved his hands away only for him to put them straight back on and push her forward.

Piper scowled at the screen upon seeing this especially since the person doing it had been arguing with his girlfriend only moments before this had happened. Admittedly he knew that Toni had not been at all fond of Steve at this point and so he wasn't as angry as he would have been had it been Bruce but he still wasn't happy.

Back in the command centre Agents were rushing to grab weapons as screens were checked and double checked to get status updates. Fury recovered from the blast and radioed in, "Hill!"

"External detonation," she began, "Number three engine is down. Can they get it running?"

"Fire in engine three," another Agent shouted.

"Talk to me," Hill asked another Agent.

"Turbine looks mostly intact but it's impossible to get out there to make repairs while we're in the air," he replied.

"If we lose one more engine, we won't be," Hill said darkly, "somebody's got to get outside and patch that engine."

"I can predict who that's going to be," Piper muttered.

"Stark, you copy that?" Fury said upon hearing the situation.

"I'm on it," Toni confirmed leaving Fury free to issue more orders, "Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section then get to the armoury. Romanoff?"

Natasha's leg was trapped between two pieces of metal but she could manage radioing in, "We're okay." Bruce however despite what she said seemed to be struggling to keep his temper, "We're okay, right?" she said nervously.

"I'm sorry about this next bit Natasha," Bruce apologised.

"I brought it on myself for the things I said; I wasn't thinking straight or I wouldn't have said them as I would have known they were just going to make things worse," Natasha said brushing it off.

The jet had now landed on the deck and Clint was leading his team into the main corridors through a ventilation shaft. "Keep that engine down!" he commanded getting an affirmative answer, "Detention, wait for cameras to go dark."

"Got it," came the confirmation.

"Stay close," he told the remaining soldiers as he swiftly drew an arrow.

Clint's fists clenched and unclenched at periodic intervals as he got more and more angry at himself for not being able to break out of Loki's control. But then again the knowledge that he hadn't been able to fight it made him feel a little better because if he had then he was just weak and the deaths were entirely his fault. This way he could believe the others when they blamed the whole fiasco on Loki.

Toni and Steve were seen running together through corridors that were throwing off sparks, "Engine three," Toni told Steve as she pulled her hair back up, "I'll meet you there." As Steve hurried off she used her handheld remote to open up the Iron Man storage and turn on the suit.

"See what I mean," Natasha said exasperatedly, "they're suddenly working together."

As Bruce struggled with his temper Natasha spoke to him, "Doctor? Bruce? You got to fight it. This is just what Loki wants."

"And that's the attitude I should have taken from the beginning," Natasha spoke again.

Bruce and Toni both nodded an affirmative to Natasha's statement confirming that the Hulk out might never have happened had Natasha used that attitude. But it did no good for them to dwell on might-have-beens.

"We're going to be okay. Listen to me," she continued waving off the workmen who attempted to come in and help to keep them out of possible danger, "We're going to be okay. All right? I swear on my life, I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never ever…"

"Bad choice of words," Toni muttered quietly.

"Your life?" Bruce roared the Hulk voice taking over as his skin turned green and his shirt began to rip. Natasha continued to pull desperately at her trapped leg trying to get herself out of the worst possible position she could be in at that particular moment.

"Bruce," Natasha said weakly as the change completed.

As the Hulk roared and smashed at some of the tech systems Natasha finally managed to free her foot and scramble to her feet. As she paused the Hulk looked over his shoulder his eyes narrowing and he launched himself at Natasha as she ran full pelt away from him. Her ascent of the stairs was cut short when the Hulk decided to rip them up so she simply launched herself up to the top access route with her upper body strength. The panel she landed on was immediately ripped out by the Hulk but she had already swung off it down onto the other side. In his cell Loki looked up upon hearing the Hulk roar and smirked dangerously.

Bruce flinched. He didn't like dwelling upon how his control (or lack of it) in this situation had facilitated Loki's escape and the only positive had been that it had eventually brought the entire team together.

"Bring the carrier about to a 1-8-0, heading south!" Fury shouted as he ran into the control room, "Take us to the water!"

"We're flying blind," an Agent pointed out, "Navigation's recalibrating after the engine failure."

"Is the sun coming up?" Fury shouted.

"Yes, sir," he said nervously.

"Then put it on the left," Fury continued angrily, "Get us over water. One more turbine goes down, and we drop."

"Common sense," Toni sighed, "why don't most SHIELD agents have it?"

On the outer hull of the ship an Agent pulled open a door for Steve so he could gain access for which he thanked him. As injured agents were escorted back inside Steve ran to the edge and shouted, "Stark! Stark, I'm here!"

"Good," Toni said over her comm unit as she flew towards the worst of the wreckage, "let's see what we've got," within the suit Toni examined the systems with her scanners and said to herself, "I got to get this superconducting coolant system back online before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris."

"You would know how to fix the helicarrier," Clint said clearly more comfortable talking for a moment while he wasn't on screen.

"Why would Friend Toni know how to fix it specifically?" Thor inquired.

"Because she designed it," Piper interrupted, "now can we get back to watching this thing."

Toni shoved the system back into the place before directing a comment to Steve, "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."

Accepting Toni's superior knowledge on this subject Steve simply nodded and launched himself across the gap to where Toni had been pointing and pulled out the panel which was blinking with red lights. As he was doing this Toni cleared some debris and created herself an access route to the rotors.

"What does it look like in there?" she asked.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity," Steve said totally baffled by the amount of technology displayed within the mechanism.

"Well, you're not wrong," Toni said graciously as she continued analysing the data.

This managed to get a general laugh out of the team despite the tenseness of the situation because Toni always had a quip and it was almost ridiculous but she wouldn't be Toni without making quips at inappropriate times and they had long ago learned that Toni didn't need to be changed. And god help those who tried to make her do so.

A/n: And that's it for this chapter. It's earlier than the last one :) Whoo, would probably have taken two days if I'd typed the whole scene up at once. I only have about two solid hours to type a day after all. Also crying cause I broke 100 reviews. I love you guys so much even those of you who just follow/favourite me.