I don't own Naruto, Dark Sector and The Avengers, they belong to the respectives owners.
Chapter 02 – Uninvited Guests
In his lab Banner was continuously scanning with a gamma ray detection scanner on the scepter for radiation. Tony glanced at his monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations.
"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." Bruce said with tired sigh.
"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster, we can clock this at around 600 teraflops." Tony said, which cause Bruce to chuckle.
"All I packed was a tooth brush." At that Tony laughed.
"You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's Candy Land." He suggested, which cause Bruce to shake his head.
"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke...Harlem." He replied as sudden memory of the Hulk fight with Abomination came to his mind.
"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises." Suddenly, Tony poked Banner with a miniature electrical prod. Then both Naruto and Steve walk into the lab, while Tony looked at Banner closely.
"Ow!" At that both Naruto and Steve got alerted.
"Nothing?" Tony asked interested, while Bruce looks at him with disbelief.
"Hey! Are you nuts?" Rogers barked to Tony.
"Jury's out." Tony retorted.
"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Tony keeps asking Bruce.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked pissed at Tony.
"Funny things are." He replied pointing with the prod to Rogers.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doc." Rogers said looking at Tony and then at Bruce.
"It's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." He said glancing at Tony, who smiled at him.
"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony said to Bruce.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Rogers tells Tony.
At that Tony snorted.
"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." He said.
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked with crossed arms.
"He's a spy. Captain, he's 'the' spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony said to him.
"It's bugging these 2, isn't it?" Tony said pointing at Banner and Naruto.
Bruce rubbed the back of his head
"Uh...I just want to finish my work here and..." He mumbled looking down.
"And I just arrive a few hours ago. And I already know about everything. Almost." Naruto tells them that something is out.
"Doctor?" Rogers said, which cause Bruce to lift his head.
"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." He replied with shrug.
"I heard it." Steve said with sigh.
"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce said to Tony make showing a bag of blueberry and he takes one
"Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news." He said pointing at Stark.
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly..." Then Tony gave him a look.
"...building in New York?" Rogers finish the sentence.
"It's powered by arc-reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Bruce asked curiously.
"It's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at." He replied with sight.
"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" He wondered, while referring to Tony.
"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D's secure files." While Steve was taken by that, Naruto simply smirked.
"I'm sorry, did you just say..." Rogers asks him.
"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide." He explained, while taking blueberries from his pocket.
"Blueberry" He offered Naruto to take few.
"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve retorted with snort.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome." He replied.
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them." Rogers said seriously
"Following is not really my style." Stark replied, which causes Rogers smiled.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked, hitting Tony nerves.
"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?" Tony said to him.
"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce asked, which cause Steve to take it as the possibility, but as an obedient soldier, he shakes it off.
"Just find the cube." Steve ordered and left the lab. Still torn apart by the possibility, he simply walks away, towards the hull of the ship.
"I'm going to check Nat. Thanks for the blueberry, Tony." Naruto said to them going to her.
"No problem, kid." Tony said to him.
"You don't have any questions about T-cyte, you know his arm?" Tony asks Bruce, getting his attention.
"Probably after this, I'll ask." He answers.
"That's the Rogers guy my dad never shut up about? I'm wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." Tony said to Bruce.
"The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us." Bruce admitted while sees the scans results of the scepter.
"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit." He said earning chuckle from Bruce.
"It's going to blow up in his face. And, I'm gonna be there when it does." Tony continues.
"Yeah. I'll read all about it." Bruce promised with smiled passing a scan to Tony's monitor.
"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." He said while he tries to speed up the process.
"Ah, you see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed. Like a nerve. It's a nightmare." He scowled.
"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart." Tony said to him.
"This stops it." He pointed at his mini arc reactor in his chest.
"This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege." Tony said him.
"But you can control it." Bruce tells him.
"Because I learned how." He said.
"It's different." Bruce said to him, cause Tony to put all programs to Bruce's left side monitor.
"Hey, I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you." Tony said to Bruce.
"So you're saying that the Hulk… The other guy saved my life? That's nice. It's nice sentiment. Saved it for what?" Bruce asks him.
"I guess we'll find out." Says Tony.
"You may not enjoy that." Bruce warns him.
"And you just might." Tony tells him.
In the hull hangar. Steve, with all his might, slides the heavy iron door and stealthily walked in. Secure Storage 10-C was a large warehouse, filled with metal crates stacked. Steve looks up, seeing another level. He leaps up high and holds onto the catwalk railing. Steve continues to move forward.
In the Briefing Room. On an S.H.I.E.L.D monitor there is a photo and record of Jane Foster. Thor looks at her, remembering time spent with her. With him was Agent Coulson, who was also looking at the monitor.
"As soon as Loki took the doctor, we moved Jane Foster. We've got an excellent observatory in Tromso. She was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe." Coulson promised, looking at Thor with smile.
"Thank you. 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 replied with frown.
"He talks about you a lot. You changed his life. You changed everything around here." He said chuckling
"They were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we...we come here battling like Bilge Snipe." Thor said with.
"Like what?" Coulson asks him confused.
"Bilge Snipe? You know, huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?" Thor tells Coulson.
"No, I don't think so." Says Coulson.
"Well they are repulsive. And they trample everything in their path." Thor said with sigh walking over to the side of the ship and looked out the window, lamenting about what has happened and what may come.
"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." He admitted.
"War hasn't started yet. You think you can make Loki tell us what the Tesseract is?" Nick asked once he entered to the brief room.
"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." He confessed with tired sigh.
"A lot of guys think that, until the pain starts." Nick said looking at him.
"What are you asking me to do?" Thor asked him.
"I'm asking. What are you prepared to do?" Fury explained.
"Loki is a prisoner." God of Thunder said somehow unsure of his answer.
"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?" Nick wondered out loud.
Out the door of Helicarrier Detention Section, Romanoff is getting ready to interrogate Loki when she hears a voice.
"Need a hand?" The voice asks her make turn to see Naruto.
"Why? You want to join?" She asks him.
"Sure, why not?" Naruto joins her going to the door.
Inside, Loki was walking back and forth inside his glass cell. Suddenly, he stopped and smiled.
"There's not many people that can sneak up on me." Loki admitted, as Natasha and Naruto step out of the shadows.
"But you figured I'd come. But not him don't you" She replied with shrug while she was seeing Loki not knowing him.
"After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate." He tells her while tries to read him but without success.
"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton." Naruto demanded sternly.
"I'd say I've expanded his mind." He said chuckling.
"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?" She asked curious.
"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki asked back, which cause her to frown.
"Love is for children. I owe him a debt." She answered coldly.
Loki smiled and sat on his prison bed.
"Tell me..." He insisted and Natasha pulled a chair and sat on it.
"Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, I uh...well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on S.H.I.E.L.D's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton and Naruto were sent to get rid of me. They both made a different call..." She explained with smile.
"And what will you do if I vow to spare him? And maybe even Naruto?" He asked in calm voice.
"Not let you out." She retorted with frown.
"Ah, no. But I like this." He admitted with laughs.
"Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?" He tells her.
She explained with shrug.
"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian... or was." Natasha added with sigh.
"And what are you now?" Loki inquired confused.
"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out." She explained with crossed arms.
"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter? São Paulo? The hospital fire? Barton told me everything! Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?" He stood up and snarled at her with anger.
"This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. PATHETIC!" Loki tells her.
While Loki said to her. We can see in the lab Tony and Banner were continuously work at their monitors.
"You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers."
Agent Hill checks every view screen in the bridge. Fury oversees every procedure. Naruto is listening to him, just got a bad feeling that something will happen soon. And he didn't like it.
"You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!"
Steve opens a steel crate. Angry, he looked behind him and looks back into the crate. The whole crate is filled with an array of Hydra weapons.
Loki slammed his hand on his cell, making Natasha flinch and Naruto start to squeeze his right hand and his power to sipping out of it.
"I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" He shouted, making Natasha stood up and turn around, disgusted by what he just said.
"You're a monster." She said quietly in distraught voice.
"Oh, no. You brought the monster." He said.
And then she turns around making Naruto smirk saying.
"So, Banner. That's your play." She said to Loki making confused.
"What?" Loki voice becomes staggered, as Natasha actives her comlink in her ear.
"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." She reported, while making her way toward the exit with Naruto.
"Thank you for your cooperation." Naruto quickly walks out of the cell, leaving Loki frozen. But after they are gone, he smirked and sits again with smile.
"Not bad, not bad at all." Naruto said to her.
"Well, it could be worse." She said.
"Please, don't jinx it." Naruto said to her.
Fury walks in the lab surprised to see Tony and Banner not working on the scepter. He narrowed his single eye at the two who were drinking coffee.
"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?!" Nick demanded, while raise his eyebrow.
"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you." He retorted, placing the cub on the table.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." He said with his arm crossed, glaring straight at Tony face.
"We are. 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." Banner explained, pointing at the monitors.
"And you'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss." Tony added clapping his hands together. Suddenly monitor next to him shows a collection of secret files.
"What is Phase 2?" He asks Fury.
Suddenly, Steve drops a Hydra assault rifle on the table causing Fury, Banner and Tony to turn around. Captain was pissed
"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D uses the cube to make weapons." Steve explained.
"Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow." Rogers said to Tony.
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making..." Before Nick could finish, Tony cut him.
"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony moves the computer screen towards Fury which shows plans various type of weapons.
"What were you lying?" Ask Tony.
"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Rogers said pissed.
At that moment, Thor, Natasha and Naruto walk into the lab. Natasha kept her eyes right on Banner. Banner looks at her, now pissed too.
What they don't see is Naruto started to fell excruciating pain on his arm and chest making him breathless and crabbing the wall.
"Did you know about this?" He asked her in rather demanding tone.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" She suggested, but it was more like an order.
"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed." He said with dry chuckle.
"Loki's manipulating you." She explains, while he waves her off.
"And you've been doing what exactly?" He retorted looking at the group in front of him.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you?" Natasha asked.
"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." He said pointing at a nuke looking like rocket on the monitor.
Naruto still in pain and he couldn't talk. But he sees the scepter's jewel pulsing.
'That thing is making me fell this pain, it almost like my body fighting it.' He thinks.
"Because of him." Nick pointed at Thor.
"Me...?" He asked stunned and confused.
"Not long ago, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned." He explained, which cause Thor to shook his head.
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." He declared firmly.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled." That causes Rogers to sigh.
"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve asked rhetorically.
"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor explained.
"A Higher form?" Rogers asks.
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Nick replied, crossing his arms.
"Nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down." Tony said out loud with chuckle.
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Nick asked rhetorically.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck this now." Steve said and Tony waved his hand on Rogers.
"Wait! Hold on! How is this about me?" He inquired curiously.
"Isn't everything about you?" Cap asked rhetorically with snort.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor snarled.
Naruto still in pain and he now sitting outside of the lab on the floor.
'C'mon, stop doing that, stupid thing. For Kami sakes.' He thinks.
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked rhetorically.
"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor snarled, while Natasha looks at him with disbelief.
"Are you boys really that naive?" She asked, shaking her head.
As the "team" argues, they don't realize the Blue Gem on Loki's scepter is glowing brightly. All aside from Naruto, who was feeling that pain from it.
'No, we shouldn't be arguing.' He thought, as his vision slowly become blurry.
Outside the Helicarrier, a lone carrier slowly hovers over the ship. "...661 Bravo, please relay your pass code. What is your hull, over?..." Asking to it.
"Arms to ammunition, over." Barton, who was piloting the Quinjet replied. After Barton and his crew suit up and arm themselves. Barton pulls out his hi-tech bow and arrows.
Back in the lab, the egos of these people keeping rubbing off each other and at any moment, the shit will hit the fan. No one was paying attention that Naruto was barely holding himself.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor barked, clenching his fists.
"It's his M.O, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb..." He said pointing at the whole group with frown.
Naruto was in pain but listening.
"You need to step away." Nick pointed at Bruce.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked, placing his hand on Steve shoulder.
"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve simply pushes him off, angry.
Blue gem was now glowing even brighter than before.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony said coming face-to-face with Steve.
"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Rogers asked, while Stark smirked.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." He answered smugly.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage." He said with snort.
"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." Steve simply chuckled at the answer.
'Damn...this scepter...Stop fighting!...scepter is affecting my arm.' Naruto thought.
"Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero." Rogers said to Tony and that did it.
"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!" He snarled.
On outside the Helicarrier, the ramp of the carrier opened. The carrier maneuvered next to one of the large turbine engines. Barton stood at the base, holding out his bow. He pulls out a grenade tipped arrow. He points right at the engine. Then...Barton moved his aim and points the arrow about a hundred feet from the engine. He releases the arrow. The arrow flies out, but then it's sharply heading for the engine. The arrow is punctured onto the engine. It has a visible timer which is counting down.
Back in the lab, Steve puffs up his chest at Tony, who just stands there, staring at him.
"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds." Rogers challenge Tony.
"You people are so petty... and tiny." Thor laughs.
Naruto tried to say something, but whenever he opens his mouth, he couldn't.
'Scepter...is affecting all of us...' Naruto thought turning his eyes at the glowing scepter on the table behind Banner.
Tony rubbed his head and moves away from Cap. He start to feel weird now and sudden ringing sound was bugging him.
"Yeah, this is a team." Banner snorted.
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his..." Before Nick could finish, Bruce cut him off.
"Where? You rented my room." He retorted.
"The cell was just in case..." Yet again Bruce cut him off.
"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" The group was a little taken by the words coming from Bruce. Even Naruto regained a bit control over himself, but still nobody saw that he was in pain.
"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!" Banner slowly gets upset as he looks at Romanoff, who got unnerved.
"You wanna know my secret? You wanna know how I stay calm?" He said Natasha while she and Fury put their hands down to grab their guns.
"Doctor Banner... put down the scepter." Steve said in calm tone.
Bruce look down, shocked to see him holding Loki's scepter. Suddenly they hear an alarm make them turn around to see that the scanner got the signal from the cube.
"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce tells them putting the scepter on the table and going to the monitor.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asks.
"I could get there fastest." Tony tells them.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it." Thor explains to them.
Tony was going to the door but he was stopped by Rogers.
"You're not going alone." He said to Tony.
"You're gonna stop me?" Says Tony.
"Put on the suit, let's find out." Rogers said to him.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony retorted.
"Put on the suit." Rogers tells him.
Barton pulls the trigger on his bow. The arrow then explodes the engine right off the Helicarrier. Everyone was thrown in every direction. Steve, Fury, Thor and Tony were thrown across while Natasha and Banner are down in the lower equipment room.
Steve looks up at Tony.
"Put on the suit!" Steve ordered, quickly helping Tony get up.
"Yep!" Tony replied heading straight to his armor.
"Hill?!"Nick shouted thought the earpiece.
"External Detonation. Turn up that engine! Number 3 engine is down! Can we get a run in?" Hill inquired, as she walks to one of the crew member.
"Talk to me?" She asks him.
"Turbine looks mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there and make repairs while we're in the air." The crew member replied pointing at the monitor.
"We lose one more engine, we won't be. Somebody's got to get inside and patch that engine." She concluded.
In Banner's Lab.
"Stark! You copy that?!" Nick shouted through the earpiece.
"I'm on it." Tony replies.
When Fury leaves the lab towards the bridge, he sees Naruto in excruciating pain.
"Son, what wrong with you?" Fury asks him while he helps him.
"I need to get away from that thing." He answers with a gasping voice point to the scepter with his eyes.
Then Fury notice what is happening to him and he get him out the lab.
And when they have a good distance from it, Naruto start to feel stronger.
"I'm ok now, old man." He assured it.
"What hell was that, son?" Fury asks him.
"The scepter, it was making me feel like my arm was on fire. But in the other side I'm glad that my arm started to fight and starts to be adapt to it." Naruto explains to him.
"Good, because I need you to be in top shape, son." Fury tells him.
"Ok, old man." Naruto said to him.
'You have to jinxed, don't you Nat.' He thinks while he and Fury are going to the bridge.
END.
If you guys have ideas or suggestions, I'm open for it.
Please review if you can. Just remember this is my 2ª fanfiction.
